Team Improves its Rankings in the Dunes of the Atacama Desert

On January 17, contestants in Dakar Rally 2013 crossed the Andes Mountains again, entering Chile from Argentina. Once in Chile, the teams competed on a 319 km SS near Copiapo, which is at the center of the Atacama Desert. Dakar Rally 2013 is now in its final stages. Although the last major challenging stages of the race were expected to be in the three days starting on January 16 in the Fiambala Desert, because competition in Fiambala was canceled due to bad weather, contestants essentially have only two days of competition left in the race, the 17th and 18th. The first part of the SS for the day took the racers across mountains at 3000 m+ elevations, and road surfaces transitioned to sandy conditions starting from around the mid-section for the rest of the course. Several sections featured towering sand dunes consisting of the soft sand characteristic of the Atacama Desert, making this SS a challenging one.

Of HINO TEAM SUGAWARA's two HINO 500 Series trucks, Car 2 piloted by Teruhito Sugawara and Hiroyuki Sugiura took on this SS in poise. The course was not that difficult, and while the mobility of their HINO 500 Series truck was not enough to give them large leads over the competition, the crew finished at a good ranking of 16th overall and top in the Under 10-litre class. Meanwhile, Car 1 piloted by Yoshimasa Sugawara and Katsumi Hamura has completely overcome its overheating problem, and flew through this stage today. While their engine's output had a tendency to drop off somewhat when its altitude compensation control kicked in at high elevations, the crew crossed all sand dunes with no problem, finishing this SS at 30th overall and 4th in the class.

This brings Car 2's accumulated rankings overall to 16th, and top in the Under 10-litre class. The runner up in this class, the Johan Elfrink and Michel de Groot crew (Mercedes Benz Axor), were forced to withdraw from the race when they veered off course in this SS. The runners up are now the Robert Jan Szustkowski, Jaroslaw Kazberuk, and Wojciech Bialowas crew (Mercedes Benz Unimog), but they trail Car 2 with a huge time difference of 6 hours 12 minutes and 52 seconds. Accumulated rankings for Car 1 is now 29th overall and 4th in the class.

On January 18, contestants will be racing on a 441 km SS between Copiapo and La Serena, both in Chile. The first half of the SS is again scheduled to feature sand dunes in the Atacama Desert. Hino mechanics wasted no time at their bivouac in Copiapo to inspect the HINO 500 Series trucks in preparation for the final stages.

Yoshimasa Sugawara: We drove through areas of high elevation today, and the overheating problem has been completely solved. We passed quite a few trucks in the sand dune sections and it felt really good today.

Katsumi Hamura: There were quite a few details to keep an eye out for in terms of navigation. We will be driving in Atacama again in the first half tomorrow, so I will be keeping my motivation up.

Teruhito Sugawara: It's difficult for us to improve our lead unless the sand dunes are more difficult. Performance levels in the Trucks category overall is improving so it's difficult to gain large leads. In any case, we did really well today. But the SSs for the Trucks category in particular are very short, so this really feels like a sprint race.

Hiroyuki Sugiura: I usually don't do too well at high altitudes, but I got through the day without any problems today. Tomorrow will essentially be the last day of competition so I intend to give it my all.

*Rankings at the time of this writing may be adjusted afterwards.

For the latest rankings, please visit the official site.

Stage ranking
https://www.dakar.com/dakar/2013/us/stage-12/rankings/stage-trucks.html#ancre

Overall ranking
https://www.dakar.com/dakar/2013/us/stage-12/rankings/overall-trucks.html#ancre

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*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.