Team is ready for the rally to start on January 2.

Vehicle inspections for Dakar Rally 2016 began on December 31 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where the rally will be kicking off. HINO TEAM SUGAWARA's two HINO500 Series trucks underwent inspections on the first day of inspections and passed without incident. After completing all paperwork, the trucks were moved to the Parc-Fermes (vehicle storage area) adjacent to the start-off venue, awaiting the start of the race on January 2.

HINO TEAM SUGAWARA staff members arrived in Argentina in mid-December, and have been carrying out preparations including final adjustments on the trucks at facilities borrowed at Toyota Argentina's Zárate factory located in the outskirts of Buenos Aires. While the team had to wait until December 24― a slight delay over the schedule―to take possession of the trucks that were shipped from Japan, they were able to complete all of their work by the 30th. The same day, at a joint press conference held by teams with affiliations with the Toyota group, the team's two drivers, Yoshimasa and Teruhito Sugawara restated their ambitions for the upcoming rally: To finish at high rankings in the overall Trucks category, and win their 7th straight championship in the Under 10-litre Class.

Due to the rally route being revised after Chile and Peru successively bowed out of hosting this year's rally, Buenos Aires was once again designated the starting city for the rally, and vehicle inspections were carried out at the "Technopolis" exhibition venue; the same venue where inspections were carried out last year. The starting ceremony will also be held at this venue. While this year's inspection took about 3 hours due to in-depth checks carried out on the strokes of rebound belts and seals affixed to various areas, the two Hino trucks passed inspections without incident or citation, after which they were moved to the Parc-Fermes. This completed the preparatory work that the team had been carrying out for the past year. On January 2, the starting ceremony will be held and contestants will head out to their first bivouac in Rosario.

Yoshimasa Sugawara: Vehicle inspections took longer than we expected and I'm glad to hear we passed without event. We arrived in Argentina relatively early on to physically acclimate ourselves to the time difference and climate. Thanks to that, I'm feeling good physically and I can't wait to start. I will be taking on the prologue run on the first day as a warm up segment.

Mitsugu Takahashi: I was quite nervous until yesterday, but I feel much calmer now that vehicle inspections are behind us. The inspections were quite in-depth and I'm glad that we passed without incident.

Teruhito Sugawara: We've been driving this truck quite extensively for the past year, and it has turned out great. Its new engine is producing a lot of power and I've never been more excited about the rally. The prologue run will take us over agricultural roads, which means that it can get dangerously slippery if it rains. I'm hoping that it doesn't.

Hiroyuki Sugiura: Inspections on our trucks began before noon on the very first day and it looked like the inspectors were still trying to learn their ropes at that point. Well, here were are finally, waiting for the race to start. There will be more high-elevation segments this year so I intend to do my best to keep myself physically fit as well.

Katsuyuki Nagoshi: This will be the third year for the A09C engine. This year, we are pushing the turbo a bit more to increase the engine's output. I hope that this will lead to good results. I am excited for the race to finally begin.

Seiichi Suzuki: All through the construction process, we've been carrying out ongoing exchanges with the organizer to confirm technical information so I wasn't anxious about the vehicle inspection. There were areas that we had to change on the spot after we got here, such as how the rebound belts were attached.

Masaki Nakamura: This is my first time in the Dakar Rally so everything is completely new to me. At the Rally Mongolia, our test run, I got first-hand experience of what it meant to have to withdraw from a race, so I'm a bit nervous leading up to the start of this one.

Masaki Tagoku: I believe it will be relatively more smooth sailing for us mechanics as we've experienced the Rally Mongolia, but I'm anxious to a degree because the environment in South America is quite different. Today, I'm relieved that we passed the vehicle inspection.

Masato Kondo: The reality of the rally began to dawn on me once we arrived at the vehicle inspection area. I'm so excited of being part of the team as a mechanic in the Dakar Rally; something which I've aspired to for so long.

Nozomi Tonoike: Mr. Urabe, my senior, gave me lots of advice. I'm feeling half excited and half anxious at this point. Some of the detailed work that we had to do leading up to inspections was a bit nerve wracking, such as drilling holes into bolts for affixing seals.

Hideyuki Sakaguchi: I will be working on Car 2. Time just flew by after we arrived in Argentina. I'm feeling good physically and excited for the race to begin. Vehicle inspections took quite a bit of time and I'm glad that we were able to pass without incident.