Tokyo – The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., announced today that it will enter an original SUV in the 2014 Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 off-road race to be held in Baja California, Mexico, during November 12–16. Yokohama Rubber will also support one of the top US off-road teams participating in the race.

YOKOHAMA’s original SUV racing machine features a proprietary design based on the concept of “an SUV created in the image of the next generation of SUVs”. The machine is equipped with YOKOHAMA’s “GEOLANDAR A/T-S” tires, an all-round tire designed especially for SUVs. With Ikuo Hanawa, a veteran of many Baja 1000 races, in the driver’s seat, the YOKOHAMA team is targeting victory in the SV6 Class for cars with engines in the under 3.7-liter/6-cylinder class.

YOKOHAMA is also supporting the husband-wife team of Cameron and Heidi Steele, two of America’s top off-road racers. The couple has been competing in the popular US off-road series, the SCORE Series, with the support of YOKOHAMA. The Company has been supporting teams competing in the Baja 1000 for many years.

Held each November, the Baja 1000 is one of the world’s leading desert races and the final race in the popular SCORE series of off-road races put on by SCORE International, a US-based off-road sanctioning body. A time-based, non-stop endurance race run over a rugged, off-road course of some 1,000 miles, the Baja 1000 tests drivers’ skills and stamina while also demanding the highest levels of steering stability, durability, and overall performance from participating machines and the tires they run on.

Driver: Ikuo Hanawa
Vehicle design: By Kenichi Sato of Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd.
Entry class (planned): SV6 Class (unlimited for four-wheel vehicles with engines under 3.7 liter/6 cylinders)
Vehicle length: 4,500mm
Vehicle width: 2,160mm
Vehicle height: 1,700mm
Vehicle weight: 1,500kg
Frame: Chromoly tube frame
Cowling: FRP-based, original racing SUV design
Engine: V6 DOHC 3500cc
Maximum HP: About 400ps
Transmission: 6-speed, manual transmission
Drivetrain: Rear 2WD
Front suspension: Double wishbone (600mm wheel stroke)
Rear suspension: Semi-trailing (550mm wheel stroke)
Shock absorber: KING 2.5 C/O + KING 3.5 bypass shocks
Fuel tank: FUEL SAFE 250L
Tires: GEOLANDAR A/T-S LT315/70R17
Wheels: WORK-BJS, Baja specs (with bead locks) 8J-17
Brakes: 4-wheel ventilated + 4 pot caliper
Brake pads: PROTIX Baja specs
Lamps: PIAA - LED
Oil: Elf
Protection: JAOS

Ikuo Hanawa was born in 1960 in Japan’s Ibaragi Prefecture. In the summer of his senior year of high school, he made his debut in the All-Japan Off-Road Race Championship Series, driving a Formula off-road dune buggy. The next year, he won the championship in the same series’ B-1 Class. From the age of 25, Ikuo began entering 4WD races, winning his very first race and rapidly moving up the chart to become the No. 1 driver in Japan’s off-road racing scene. Ikuo went on to dominate off-road racing in Japan in the 1990s, capturing the championship of the JFWDA Championship Series 10 years in a row. In 2001, he celebrated his 100th victory in an official race. Ikuo has also been active in the international off-road racing scene. In 1991, he entered his first Baja 1000, one of the top off-road races in the Americas, and became the first Japanese racer to finish the race (in fifth place). In 2002, he captured the championship in his class. In 2010, Ikuo entered the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, the world’s most famous hill-climbing race, in an all-electric vehicle sponsored by Yokohama Rubber. He won the Exhibition Class in a record time for an electric vehicle. Ikuo then repeated his success at Pikes Peak in 2011, smashing his own record to become the first champion in the now official EV Class.