Team Finishes Last Challenging Stage in Solid Form

Car 2 Comes in at 28th overall in the SS
Car 1 Also Shows its Mettle on Sand Dunes, Its Forte.

January 18 was essentially the last day of competition on a course that took the teams from Copiapo to Serena. While the SS was 441 km long, it featured a 61 km paved neutral zone mid-course. The segment before this neutral zone featured the sand dunes around Copiapo, and the segment after the neutral zone consisted of hilly terrain near the Pacific coast. While a 346 km SS is scheduled for tomorrow, January 19, over two-thirds of this distance consists of paved neutral zones, leaving only 111 km in the first half and several kilometers in the second half for competition. Additionally, big changes in rankings are unlikely to occur as the road surface consists of gravel which makes it difficult for contestants to reap large time differences.

HINO TEAM SUGAWARA and its two HINO 500 Series trucks had a solid day again today. The Teruhito Sugawara and Hiroyuki Sugiura crew of Car 2 overcame some difficulties to complete the hill crossing immediately after the start which took them up to an elevation of 2800 m. They completed the sand dune segment that followed without event, but their left rear tire burst about 30 km to the goal, causing them to lose about 30 minutes as they replaced their tire. They completed the remainder of the SS in solid fashion to come in at 28th overall and 2nd in the Under 10-litre class for this SS. This resulted in a slight fall in their accumulated overall rankings to date to 19th overall, but they still have a solid lead in the top position in the Under 10-litre class.

The Yoshimasa Sugawara and Katsumi Hamura crew of Car 1 had a solid day that was befitting of the veterans that they are. The gear connections on the truck were going very well over sand dunes thanks to the superior torque characteristics of the truck's electronic controlled engine, and they were able to finish the challenging portions of Atacama Desert without getting stuck once. Car 1 completed the SS at 39th overall and 5th in the class, improving its accumulated rankings to 30th overall and 3rd in the class.

Due to the fact that the SS for this day started late in the day at around 1 pm, and that there was a 204 km liaison after the SS, the trucks have been arriving late at La Serena. Car 2 has arrived as of 12 midnight local time, while we are still waiting for Car 1 at the bivouac where hino mechanics are wasting no time to carry out their final inspections. Tomorrow will be the big day when we arrive at Santiago.

Teruhito Sugawara: The sand dunes we came across today were difficult to climb and there were several that we could not climb in one go. We lost about 30 minutes replacing our flat tire. It was a long and exhausting day.

Hiroyuki Sugiura: I made a course error for a distance of about 2-3 km early in the race. Once back on the course, a line of later cars had caught up with us, and this may have somewhat thrown us off our pace, so I'm very frustrated about that. Tomorrow is the last day, so I will 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-13/rankings/stage-trucks.html#ancre

Overall ranking
https://www.dakar.com/dakar/2013/us/stage-13/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.