Jan 8, 2012, Rest Day (Copiapó, Chile)

Teams Take a Day Off at Copiapo
Both HINO 500 Series Trucks are Ready for the Second Half of the Race.

On January 8, contestants of the 2012 Dakar Rally took a day off at Copiapo, Chile.

Starting from Mar Del Plata in Argentina on the 1st, the race entered Chile on the 6th. In the second half of the race, which begins tomorrow on January 9, contestants will race northwards in Chile towards Peru, and reach their goal in Lima, the capital city of Peru, on the 15th. There will be many dune sections in the northern part of the Atacama Desert as well as in Peru. HINO TEAM SUGAWARA, which is fielding two HINO 500 Series trucks in this race, made full use of this day to recuperate and prepare their trucks. The team is now fully prepared to take on the second half of the race. The four Hino mechanics who are a part of the team continued to work until 4:00 am after the trucks arrived at the bivouac last night, and continued to work throughout the day today. Meanwhile, the two navigators went over their road books, and the drivers took time to relax and unwind. Current overall rankings for Car 2 piloted by Teruhito Sugawara and Seiichi Suzuki are 13th overall and 1st in the Under 10-litre class. Overall rankings for Car 1 piloted by Yoshimasa Sugawara and Hiroyuki Sugiura are 22nd overall and 3rd in the Under 10-litre class.

The team has been committed and focused to achieve their goal, which is for both trucks to complete the race, to win a championship in the Under 10-litre class, and to finish at high rankings in the trucks category overall. Tomorrow, contestants will travel to Antofagasta for a 477 km SS.

Yoshimasa Sugawara: I'm feeling good, and the truck is doing good too. Although retiring had crossed my mind after I turned 70, I learned of people older than myself who continued to compete in other sports, and that spurred me on again. The second half begins tomorrow. My goal is to make a 1-2 finish in the Under 10-litre class.

Hiroyuki Sugiura: We will be entering a full-blown dune stage, so I will make sure that I am well-conditioned physically so that we can improve our rankings in the dune segments where we have the advantage.

Teruhito Sugawara: We will probably come across a lot of small stones tomorrow just like in Morocco. I will not be thinking about our rankings even as we enter the second half, and will focus on maintaining our pace. The abilities of our rivals have been within expectations, but I get the feeling they are improving their potential little by little.

Seiichi Suzuki: Compared to other years, it appears that there was more welding work that had to be done on our rest day, mainly on the rear body of Car 2. Making the truck lighter was a priority so most of this damage was expected. We don't have any problems other than this.

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(The rankings in parentheses are in the class with an engine displacement of below 10 liters.)
*The rankings at the time when the report was written might be adjusted afterwards.

*The HINO vehicle referred in this news in relation to the rally is specially designed, tuned and modified for the Dakar Rally, and most of its specifications are different from those of the HINO vehicles sold in the market unless otherwise specifically mentioned.