On January 8 Rest Day
La Paz (Bolivia)

Jan. 8 was a day of rest for the teams in La Paz, Bolivia. Due to the cancelation of the stage leading to La Paz, the team arrived early and this has allowed them to begin inspections and servicing the day before. Servicing work centered on pre-scheduled replacements of parts. Although the mechanics had the intermittent drizzles to contend with, they were able to complete all necessary tasks, and by midnight, the team's two HINO500 Series trucks were fully refreshed and ready to race the second half. Meanwhile, organizers announced that they will be significantly shortening the SS for tomorrow, Jan. 9, due to the effects of rain near Uyuni.

So far, HINO TEAM SUGAWARA's Car 2 crewed by Teruhito Sugawara and Hiroyuki Sugiura stands at 12th place in the overall trucks category, and Car 2 piloted by Yoshimasa Sugawara and Mitsugu Takahashi stands at 32nd place overall. Car 2 and Car 1 currently stand at first and second place, respectively, in the Under 10-litre Class. As impressive as these results are, the second half of the rally is expected to meet teams with a succession of challenging stages including a marathon stage on the first day where they will not be accompanied by their assistance squads, fesh-fesh and extreme heat near Fiambala, and dunes in the Andes foothills. The team's eyes are now on achieving their eighth consecutive class win as well as on how high in rankings Car 2 will be able to advance in the overall category. During a team meeting that was held after they completed their servicing work, members renewed their determination to work as a coherent team and give it the best effort that they have.

Yoshimasa Sugawara: I received an IV transfusion last night at the medical center and I feel physically refreshed. I'm doing fine now.

Mitsugu Takahashi: We would rather race the entire course under good weather, but there isn't much you can do with this kind of rain. And although the stage will be shorter, the dunes will probably make things quite challenging.

Teruhito Sugawara: Racing the trucks category in the Dakar Rally has become quite the challenge in that you will fall back in standings unless you race at full potential in all of the stages. We will be facing a string of challenging stages in the second half so we intend to take it one day at a time.

Hiroyuki Sugiura: Given these conditions, I was relieved to hear that the stage for tomorrow has been shortened. The total distance is longer though, so we may decide to avoid some areas.

Seiichi Suzuki: On rest day, we replaced the rear leaf springs on Car 2, and focused inspections on vulnerable areas of the truck's drive train such as the transfer and reduction hubs. Car 1 has had relatively less fatigue so we carried inspections on the truck to the tee.

Masaki Nakamura: The rain slowed us down, but I'm relieved that we were able to complete all of our work. One major work was the leaf spring replacement on Car 2, but we were able to complete that last night.

Hiroyuki Azuma (Hino Motors Fukushima): I felt a bit tired on rest day because of the rain, cold, and a minor onset of altitude sickness, but I'm glad we were able to finish work on the trucks as planned. I'm feeling good physically.

Koji Nakamura (Hino Motors Ishikawa): I haven't been able to adjust to the food, but I'm feeling pretty good physically otherwise. The rain can make something as simple as an oil change that much more difficult, so we took a lot of time today.

Junya Inoue (Hino Motors Okayama): Once you start inspecting the truck, you start to notice one thing after another that might need to be looked into. There's never enough time. More so because we won't be around for the trucks tomorrow when they run the marathon stage.

Kenji Kunimoto (Hino Motors Hiroshima): The rain was frustrating because it slowed our work down. The thin air in the highlands does give you a sense of actually being on the job. This rest day will be our last day of work in Bolivia so I am going to pull through with all I've got.

Kohei Shimazaki: Things are going smoothly with transportation on our Hi-Lux. But we do have to fight drowsiness in the highlands. The toughest part so far has been the bivouac in Oruro where the ground had turned into a sea of mud.

Koji Tanaka: It's obvious that the mechanics have been having a tough time since we arrived in Bolivia. Oftentimes, they can't even take a shower after work because of the cold.

Ryu Takashima: My responsibility is to support the support group so I keep an eye out for what I can do to help. I've gotten used to how things proceed in the course of a day. I'm not sure if what I'm feeling is altitude sickness, but I am feeling the effects of low oxygen.