Drama in the Sand Dune Stage Early in the Race.

Car 1 Lowers its Position due to a Bent Tie Rod.
A Solid Day for Car 2 as it Maintains its Top Position in its Class.

The course for January 7 took the contestants from Pisco to Nazca. The trucks first headed southeast from Pisco, raced a 243km SS near the Andes Mountains, and then reached Nazca via a 96km liaison segment. While this stage proceeded on the same Nazca-Pisco section as last year in the opposite direction, and parts of it appeared to have been exactly the same, the early half featured highly challenging sand dunes which gave the racers a hard time. In contrast to Buenos Aires and Mar Del Plata, the starting cities in previous races that started in Argentina, the southeastern region of Lima is made up of vast deserts. This has allowed the organizers to create a course that would wind through continuous desert right off the start line - a first since the race was relocated to South America. This is reminiscent of the Dakar Rally as it was held in Africa where contestants were essentially screened out of the race in the early stages.

HINO TEAM SUGAWARA, which fields two HINO 500 Series trucks in the Trucks category, began their race again today with no big fuss. Car 2 crewed by Teruhito Sugawara and Hiroyuki Sugiura completed the dune sections without event to come in at 24th overall and top in its class for the SS, with an accumulated ranking of 25th overall and top in its class.

The water temperature problem that surfaced the previous day on Car 1 - the new racing truck with its new electronically controlled engine - had been solved, and the truck was running smoothly when, at the 183km point, one of its tie rods got bent as the truck was driving over a hole in the road. The crew was forced to carry out repairs on the spot, and because this was a stop-gap measure and not a full repair, they were forced to proceed in a tow-out state. This reduced their pace considerably, lowering the truck's position for the SS to 46th overall and 5th in the class. Its accumulated rankings dropped to 37th overall and 5th in its class.

The course for January 8 will take the contestants southward along the Pacific coast to Arequipa, the last bivouac in Peru. The race for the day is scheduled on a 288km course near Nazca where contestants will be faced with challenging sand dunes early in the race, making this course an excellent closure for three straight days of grueling racing in the first part of the rally.

Yoshimasa Sugawara: We bent a tie rod at the 173km point as we drove over a large hole in the road. It was bent to the point where we could not proceed, so we jacked the truck up and took some stop-gap measures. Still, I could not keep the truck driving straight, and we had a hard time going over the dunes as I could not steer the truck properly. This caught me by surprise as this was the first time I've experienced this particular problem.

Katsumi Hamura: The force didn't feel that strong so I was rather surprised that the rod got bent. We were driving at a very good pace up to that point. I am going to put this one behind me and do my best for the rest of the race.

Teruhito Sugawara: Today was a very tough day for us. If the surfaces were harder, that would allow our larger rivals to reduce their time difference with us, and if the surfaces were more difficult, that would work to our advantage. The fact that we haven't been able to earn a significant time difference over larger trucks in dune segments probably reflects the fact that the drivers are getting better now that we are in the fourth year of racing in South America.

Hiroyuki Sugiura: I finally feel like I've picked up my pace. The navigation for today was not particularly difficult and we were able to race a solid race.

*The rankings at the time when the report was written might be adjusted afterwards.

Refer to the latest ranking list of the official site.

Stage ranking
https://www.dakar.com/dakar/2013/us/stage-3/rankings/stage-trucks.html#ancre

Overall ranking
https://www.dakar.com/dakar/2013/us/stage-3/rankings/overall-trucks.html#ancre

ROUTE MAP

PHOTOS

*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.