Team Finishes Challenging Stage of Fesh-Fesh and Dunes
Car 2 finishes 19th overall for the SS. Car 1 also does well at 35th overall.

On January 9, the third day of racing within Chilean borders, contestants raced on a 277km SS between Antofagasta and Iquique. The SS, which was set to the west of Iquique, primarily consisted of gravel roads with profuse fesh-fesh*, with sand dune segments towards the end. A 22km neutral zone was set midway through the SS, so its actual distance was 255km -- 69km before and 186km after the neutral zone.

On January 8, Car 1 crewed by Yoshimasa Sugawara, Yoko Wakabayashi, and Katsumi Hamura, encountered no major problems and arrived at the bivouac in Antofagasta at around midnight after a day of racing. Mechanics inspected the truck through the night, and it left the bivouac in good shape together with Car 2 piloted by Teruhito Sugawara and Hiroyuki Sugiura.

Car 2 continued to deliver stunning performance in this SS, finishing at 19th in the overall Trucks category and 1st in its class. Teruhito Sugawara emphasized how the new truck is able to race neck and neck against its larger rivals in the Trucks category on rough roads as well as on dunes, thanks to the new A09C engine and suspension upgrades it has received. Meanwhile, Car 1 also did very well, finishing at 35th overall and 2nd in the class. This brings Car 2's accumulated rankings to 20th in the trucks category overall and top in its class, and Car 1's rankings to 32nd overall and 2nd in its class, despite the 3-hour time penalty it suffered from missing a number of way points on fourth day of racing.

Tomorrow, January 10, each of the categories will be on different race itineraries. The Bikes category will have a rest day, the Cars category will head out to Uyuni, Bolivia, and the Trucks will race a marathon stage on the outskirts of Iquique set up a marathon bivouac where they will not receive support from their assistant trucks or mechanics. At this bivouac, the crew is allowed to service and repair their trucks using only parts and tools loaded on their trucks, so the Hino team is paying even closer attention than usual in inspecting and servicing the trucks.

* fesh-fesh: This refers to terrain covered with sedimentation composed of powdery sand. These can be found all over South America, creating conditions of near-zero visibility caused by dust kicked up by preceding race vehicles. If a car covered in fesh-fesh goes through a puddle of water, the powdery sand mixed with water can find its way into the small gaps and openings of the vehicle’s components, potentially causing breakdowns when the mixture hardens.

Yoshimasa Sugawara: I went to bed at 2:00am last night and got up at 6:00 this morning, so I am a bit sleepy, but I'm feeling great physically and the truck is doing great too. There dust was profuse on today's SS, and we also came across a lot of hidden potholes and cliffs, so it was quite dangerous.

Yoko Wakabayashi: I'm finally starting to get used to it. I was just overwhelmed when I first saw the dunes, but I was relaxed enough today to be able to pay attention to the periphery as well.

Katsumi Hamura: The way we share our roles is that, on the dunes, for example, Ms. Wakabayashi would point out the rough direction and I would look it up on the road book. Things went pretty well today.

Teruhito Sugawara: The dunes today were the most difficult that I've come across in the last few years. The rough roads in this area are really punishing, but our truck is on a roll performance-wise, and our faster rivals appear not to be able to catch up with us.

Hiroyuki Sugiura: With bumps hidden under the fesh-fesh, and challenging sand dunes, this was another brutal day of racing. There were a lot of times where I couldn't see the navigation landmarks because of the dust.

* 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.

Photos

Route Map