Car 2 finishes at 23rd overall in great form, and Car 1 comes in at a solid 47th.

The course for January 4 took contestants from Villa Carlos Paz to Termas de Río Hondo, both in Argentina. While yesterday's SS had to be canceled due to bad weather, competition was given a green light this day albeit on a shorter course than scheduled. The race is finally on, three days after its starting day.

For the first part of the day, contestants raced northward on intermountain roads along the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The rest of the day also featured winding roads that snaked between the hills, reminiscent of WRC courses. In order to make better time, contestants had to attack blind corners at high speeds. Intense dust was also a problem in many areas, making this a day of high-risk racing. Changes were also made to the course―including its truncation at CP4 (checkpoint 4) towards the end―shortening it to 373km from 510km, which would have made it the longest SS in this year's rally.

HINO TEAM SUGAWARA's two HINO500 Series trucks finished this stage with strength to spare. Car 2, crewed by Teruhito Sugawara and Hiroyuki Sugiura, finished the day at 23rd overall in the Trucks category, and top in the Under 10-litre Class. Car 1, crewed by Yoshimasa Sugawara and Mitsugu Takahashi, finished at 47th overall and 4th in the Class.

Although their later start times meant that Car 2 and Car 1 would only arrive at the bivouac at roughly 11pm and 12pm, respectively, both crews were in good shape and neither truck showed any signs of significant problems. On January 5, trucks were originally scheduled to race a 314km SS en route from Termas de Río Hondo to Jujuy. However, bad weather has once again forced organizers to shorten the day's competition to 190km.

Yoshimasa Sugawara: I used extra caution driving in narrow and hazardous sections. It was a long day. The truck is doing great so I will give it my best again tomorrow.

Mitsugu Takahashi: The race began in earnest today, and I was naturally a bit nervous, but I also had a lot of fun. I made some mistakes that one might expect from a novice navigator, but our driver is a seasoned veteran so things were under control.

Teruhito Sugawara: We were able to race at a very good pace. Taking into account the sections where we had to slow down due to the dust, I think there's room to shave off another 10 minutes from our time. The engine is also easier to handle, including how the greater torque now allows me to go on 4th gear in situations where I would have had to use 3rd gear in the past.

Hiroyuki Sugiura: Today's route posed no challenges in the way of navigation thanks to course branches being marked with tape and other measures that were taken. In terms of the truck, hitting our bumper in the bush was about as serious as things got today, so we had no problems to speak of.