The second half of the rally kicks off.

January 11: The second half of Dakar Rally 2016 kicked off with a 393km special set between Salta and Belén, Argentina. Fifty-one trucks raced out of the start line this day as only four trucks have withdrawn from the race so far, thanks to the relative calm of the first week.

The course took contestants on a 129km liaison to the foothills in southeastern area of Salta. From there, they raced on a two-part SS consisting of 162km and 232km segments, with a 140km neutral zone sandwiched in between. While the first half featured high-speed pistes (unpaved road) that made for smooth driving, the latter half met contestants with a variety of terrain ranging from pistes that wove through rocky valleys to dried river beds, fesh-fesh (fine powdery sand of dry clay) and hilly off-piste terrain. Vehicles also climbed to a point at 3000m above sea level towards the end of the second half of the day.

HINO TEAM SUGAWARA's two HINO500 Series trucks were fully refreshed during the day of rest on January 10 and started the second half of the rally in great form. The starting order during the first half of the race had the trucks start after all the cars, but from this day on, the cars and trucks will be making a mixed start in the order of their previous day's time. As a result, the team's trucks will now be starting earlier in the day.

Car 2 crewed by Teruhito Sugawara and Hiroyuki Sugiura did exceptionally well in this day's SS. Although they blew both right side tires in a deep rut at one point in the day, they quickly recovered from this setback, finishing at 17th place in the overall Trucks category―within striking distance of the top group―and top in the Under 10-litre Class. The Yoshimasa Sugawara and Mitsugu Takahashi crew of Car 1 maintained a cautious pace, and finished the Special at 38th overall and 3rd in the class. Based on these results, Car 2 is now in 16th place, and Car 1 in 39th place in the overall Trucks category. The two trucks continue to maintain their one-two lead in the Under 10-litre Class.

The bivouac in Belén, situated at the end of a 104km liaison coming out of the SS, was set up on a sporting ground in an intermountain area approximately 1200m above sea level. Tomorrow, on January12, contestants will race a looped course starting from and finishing at Belén.

Yoshimasa Sugawara: The roads were bad the whole day, ranging from grassy sand hills to wadis. It was a lot of fun driving since I do quite well on these types of roads. Of course, we didn't get stuck or blow any tires.

Mitsugu Takahashi: I felt a bit tense as this was the first time I've navigated on sandy off-piste. I'm relieved that things worked out fine. Tomorrow is apparently going to be another challenging day.

Teruhito Sugawara: We blew both tires on the right side when we fell into a deep rut towards the end of the SS, not that far away from the finish line. We were able to get back on track in 17 minutes, thanks to the help we got from the locals, but I do think about how we would've done without those lost minutes.

Hiroyuki Sugiura: This was the first day of serious CAP (compass bearing) navigation in an off-piste setting. It finally feels like we're racing the Dakar Rally as it's supposed to be.