The Dakar 2009 Race Report (Stage 11, January 14)

The SS to Fiambala was cancelled. The vehicles once again entered Argentina by a connecting road.

Copiapo to Fiambala
Connection 680 km, SS 0 km, Total: 680 km

The course on the 14th was planned to cross the border into Argentina once again and to travel to Fiambala from Copiapo in Chile. However, because the weather forecast in the Atacama Desert was unfavorable, the 215-km SS planned in the morning was cancelled in order to avoid risking a schedule delay; and bad visibility due to fog was anticipated during the course set to cross the border thereafter. It was decided that all the vehicles be moved to Fiambala by a connecting road. We passed through high mountainous areas on the way, at an altitude up to 4,200m through the Andes. Although the altitude gradually lessened after that point, Fiambala is still located at 1,520m, which is the highest altitude among all the bivouacs in this rally. The landscape of the bivouac surrounded by mountains was like north Morocco, with its view of the Atlas Mountains. Today was also the only marathon day without any assistance vehicles – no sight of the assistance camions nor our seven mechanics in Fiambala. Therefore, the crew themselves worked on the two Hino 500 Series vehicles after they arrived at Fiambala just after 6:00pm. They were all getting ready for the race from Fiambala to La Rioja scheduled tomorrow. They now have three more stages to go before the end of this rally. Although there seem to be some dunes in tomorrow’s SS, this will really be the last difficult course. This noted, the crew tried to become spirited once again, stating that it is still too early to feel entirely relaxed about the course to come.

Yoshimasa Sugawara (Car 1 Driver)
“Although we were supposed to assist Car 2 yesterday, we lost them at a trifle, and their trouble occurred just after that, so I am really sorry about this.”

Katsumi Hamura (Car 1 Navigator)
“At least, Car 1 has no trouble. I had a headache today due to thin air when we went over the mountains. It seems that we are going to have a lot of sand again tomorrow.”

Teruhito Sugawara (Car 2 Driver)
“The sun is strong, it is windy, and there is a lot of dust -- just like Africa.”

Seiichi Suzuki (Car 2 Navigator)
“I worried about whether the vehicle could be repaired when we returned to Copiapo this morning. We are totally relieved we could assemble one good rear differential by combining it with the one damaged on the 12th.”
 

The Sugawara father and son talking about the dune stage tomorrow.	The Hino 500 Series vehicles arriving at the marathon bivouac without any assistance vehicles.