Rally is on its Last Stages. Competition is Now Back in Argentina.
Car 2 delivers great performance at 22nd for the SS, and Car 1 also finishes at a solid 39th.

While HINO TEAM SUGAWARA’s Car 1 piloted by Yoshimasa Sugawara, Yoko Wakabayashi, and Katsumi Hamura was late to arrive yesterday (January 13) at the bivouac in Calama, Chile, it eventually arrived safely two minutes past midnight for a 30th place finish in the overall Trucks category. The truck underwent inspections that night and left early in the morning on January 14 along with Car 2 crewed by Teruhito Sugawara and Hiroyuki Sugiura.

The itinerary for January 14 had the contestants travel from Calama to Salta. They crossed the Andes again back into Argentina from Chile on a 385km liaison route, and raced on a 371km SS in mountain areas in the northwestern part of Argentina. After finishing this SS, the Bikes category traveled on another liaison segment and headed for their marathon bivouac in Cachi. As a result, the Cars and Trucks categories were the only ones seen at the bivouac.

The SS for the day began in a piste in an intermountain area with elevations going up to 4500m, and took contestants over a variety of terrain such as dried riverbeds and narrow winding roads that wound around cliffs. Crews had to exercise extra caution as some surfaces were roughed up by the rainfall over the past few days, and they also had to contend with large potholes and deep ruts.

The Car 2 crew stayed extra sharp for this SS and finished at 22nd in the overall Trucks category and top in the Under 10-litre Class. Car 1 also delivered solid performance finishing the stage at 39th overall and 2nd in the class. This brings the accumulated overall rankings for Car 2 and Car 1 to 17th and 30th, respectively, and the trucks continue maintain their solid 1-2 accumulated lead in the Under 10-litre Class.

On January 15, racers will be traveling to Termas de Rio Hondo, the only new bivouac site of this year’s race, and compete on a 194km SS that traverses the Salta and Tucuman areas.

Yoshimasa Sugawara: I’m a bit sleepy as I didn’t get much time to sleep last night, but I’m doing fine. The first part of the SS today was a high-speed segment and it felt good racing those mountain roads. We’ve got three more days to go, so I will stay focused because you never know what is going to happen.

Yoko Wakabayashi: We saw a lot of cute cacti today, and got a sense of the change in climate as the greenery got more lush the closer we got to Salta. We’re almost done, so I intend to stay on top of things.

Katsumi Hamura: There isn’t much to say about navigation, other than that I intend to stay focused and not let my guards down until the end.

Teruhito Sugawara: By now, our competitors’ trucks have also undergone quite a beating as we near the finish, so I think we will still have opportunities to improve our position. Today again, we’ve been able to chase the top racers in the overall Trucks category from about only 40 minutes behind, so I think that’s great.

Hiroyuki Sugiura: I had a pounding headache in the first part where the altitude was high so that was tough. After that, we were essentially on a one track road so it was not difficult at all from a navigation standpoint. The truck is doing fine too.

* 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.

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Dakar Rally 2015 - Playlist
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2qHJ6JYuHy3EIASRdVzA-Cjj2Ek2eQD7

Photos

Route Map