Team finishes the first half with a one-two lead in the Under 10-litre Class.

January 9: The arrival of both of the team's trucks was delayed this day, with Car 2 crewed by Teruhito Sugawara and Hiroyuki Sugiura arriving at 11:30pm, and Car 1 piloted by Yoshimasa Sugawara and Mitsugu Takahashi―which suffered a one-hour time loss when they got stuck in a river crossing early in the SS―arriving at the bivouac in good shape at about 2:30am.

Car 2 finished at 18th overall and top in the Under 10-litre Class for the day, and Car 1 came in at 45th place overall and 3rd in the class. The accumulated rankings for Car 2 and Car 1 were 18th overall and top in the class, and 41st overall and 2nd in the class, respectively. As of the completion of the first half of the rally, the team's two trucks continue to maintain their one-two lead in the Under 10-litre Class.

January 10 was a rest day for the crew, while the mechanics spent the whole day inspecting and servicing the trucks. Parts and oils were also replaced as scheduled, and both HINO500 Series trucks were fully refreshed to take on the second week of the rally.

The teams have six more stages to go before they reach the finish line in Rosario on January 16. In the coming days in the foothills of the Andes Mountains in central Argentina, contestants will be faced with demanding courses including deserts in the outlying areas of Fiambala where average speeds will naturally be much lower. On January 11, teams will race on a two-part SS with a total distance of 394km on their way to Belén.

Yoshimasa Sugawara: Early in the SS yesterday, we got stuck on soft dirt when we were looking for a good point to cross a river. It took us about an hour to get out and it was already dark by the time we got near the end of the SS. I'm relieved that we were able to complete the day in good shape to take on the second half of the race.

Mitsugu Takahashi: This was the first time I experienced getting stuck in a truck so it was a bit nerve-racking. We got help from a truck crew that was also stuck near us, and from spectators as well. I was relieved that we made it out.

Teruhito Sugawara: The latter half of the rally will be more demanding, and I think the time differences will widen between trucks in different ranking positions. Currently, we are 2 hours and 20 minutes behind the leader, but I think this would have been more like 4 hours on our previous truck. This is testimony to how good this truck is, and I'm excited to see how much more we can do in the second half.

Hiroyuki Sugiura: So we're done with the highland stages, which are my bane. We're told that there will be soft sandy terrain tomorrow, so it looks like we're finally going to see something more Dakar Rally-like.

Katsuyuki Nagoshi: We tuned the turbo to work hard under the air-deprived conditions at high altitudes to give the engine more power, and I think that went fairly well. We've also been able to identify areas for improvement, so that's data we can use in our development moving forward.

Masaki Nakamura: On Car 2, we replaced the front leaf as scheduled, as well as its broken stabilizer and its tires. We performed a number of tasks on Car 1 including replacing its propeller shaft. We were told that Salta gets frequent rain showers so we were fortunate that it stayed dry.