Jan 10, 2012, Antofagasta-Iquique
Connection: unknown Special Stage: 606 Total: unknown (km)

Contestants Face the Longest SS - 606 km - of This Rally as They Head for Iquique, Chile.
Car 2 Maintains its Top Position in the Under 10-litre Class and Improves Its Overall Ranking to 11th.
Car 1 Believed to Be En-Route as of This Writing.

On January 10, rally contestants headed northward from Antofagasta to Iquique on Chilean soil, engaging in the longest SS of this rally - 606 km - in the mountain areas of the Andes foothills. The SS was interrupted midway by a paved neutral zone between the 340 km and 466 km points, and contestants were timed in the two segments on either end of this paved segment. The first half was an unending procession of inter-mountain roads that meandered along the valley floor, dried river beds with thick layers of fluffy powder sand (fesh-fesh), and hills at elevations exceeding 2000 m. During a test drive that was carried out immediately prior to the race, organizers found that road construction was in progress at the 138.7 km point and a bridge had been washed away at the 216.36 km point. The SS therefore had to be rerouted, and ended up being extended to 606 km from the scheduled 556 km. The second half progressed gradually from gravel to sand, with a 40 km stretch of dunes in the latter part. At the end awaited the finish line for the day that has by now become familiar to contestants and fans, where the vehicles hurtled down dunes with height differences in the 100s of meters - as if they were roller coasters - towards the bivouac set up near the coast in Iquique. Because this SS was long, and the hard road surface could cause serious damage if any vehicles were to over pace themselves, a large number of vehicles arrived late at the bivouac. On this day, more than ten associates of local Hino distributors and users from Chile and Bolivia visited the bivouac to cheer the team on.

Despite of the long SS today, HINO TEAM SUGAWARA, which is fielding two HINO 500 Series trucks in this race, continued to maintain their pace. Car 2 piloted by Teruhito Sugawara and Seiichi Suzuki finished the SS at 18th place overall and 2nd place in the Under 10-litre class. While Car 2 ceded the top position in this class for the SS to Johan Elfrink (Mercedes Benz Axor) - who ranks 2nd overall - by a time difference of 6 minutes and 16 seconds, it improved its ranking in the Trucks category overall to 11th. Car 2 still maintains its top position in the Under 10-litre class overall, with a large lead of 3 hours 11 minutes 25 seconds over the Elfrink crew.

Meanwhile, Car 1 piloted by Yoshimasa Sugawara and Hiroyuki Sugiura also delivered a solid race, passing the final checkpoint at 8:39 pm at 52nd place overall. Although they have not arrived as of 10:30, we have been informed that they are en-route to the bivouac. At the bivouac in Iquique, the four Hino mechanics are servicing Car 2 and continue to wait for the arrival of Car 1. Tomorrow, January 11, will be the last day of racing in Chile on a 377 km SS stretching from Iquique to Arica.

Teruhito Sugawara: Power has the final say on days like this where we have to drive through many sections covered with fesh-fesh, which create great resistance, so we tend to lag behind our larger rivals. Also, the nature of the course was such that we would be subjecting our truck to too much stress if we increased our pace too much. I think tomorrow will be even more challenging.

Seiichi Suzuki: Both sensors of the Terratrip that we use to measure our distance broke down, so I had to navigate using our GPS trip meter. The positioning of the GPS waypoints, which we are required to pass, were not that tricky, so this was a fairly easy stage in terms of navigation.

(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.

Refer to the Daily Movies
https://www.hino-global.com/dakar/gallery/video_index.html

*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.