On January 3, Stage2
Resistencia (Argentina) - San Miguel de Tucuman Liaison: 431km, SS: 284km, Liaison: 98km Total: 813km

The itinerary for Jan. 3 took contestants from Resistencia to San Miguel de Tucuman, both in Argentina. They drove to the western part of Argentina in the first liaison segment which was followed by an SS in the foothills of the Andes near Tucuman. The SS was 275km for motorbikes and cars, and 284km for the trucks category.These foothills were situated at an elevation of 200 to 250 meters, and the segment consisted of a high-speed course on hard gravel piste. Risks were also quite high with intense dust and pot holes.

HINO TEAM SUGAWARA's HINO500 Series trucks―with their A09C-TI engines (8866cc) now producing 650ps, and their upgraded suspension systems―had a great run in this SS.

With speed that seriously challenged its larger rivals, Car 2 piloted by Teruhito Sugawara and Hiroyuki Sugiura finished 20th in the overall trucks category and at top position in the Under 10-litre Class. The Yoshimasa Sugawara and Mitsugu Takahashi duo on Car 1 finished the SS 42nd overall and in 2nd place in its Class, gifting the team with a 1-2 finish in the Under 10-litre Class.

After the SS, contestants headed for Tucuman on a 98km liaison. Both of the team's trucks started the SS relatively late in the day―Car 2 at 42 minutes after 2 pm and Car 1 at 50 minutes and 30 seconds after 2pm. As a result, it was past 8 pm when Car 2 arrived at the bivouac which was set up on a horse racing track, with Car 2 arriving at around 9:30 pm. The mechanics who had been on stand-by wasted no time to inspect and service the trucks.

Tomorrow, on day-4, contestants will race their last Argentine segment for the first half of the rally and head for San Salvador de Jujuy. The SS for the day is set to be 199km long, and racers will pass through points in the Andes intermountain areas at an elevation of 4960m, the highest elevation of this years event.

Yoshimasa Sugawara: The intense dust made this a risky SS so we maintained a moderate pace. We saw the aftermath of a rear-ender in which low visibility may have been a factor, so we stayed extra alert.

Mitsugu Takahashi: After a lapse of a year, I'm physically getting used to navigating again. I stayed cautiously attentive in areas with speed restrictions, but in areas where we could drive at top speed, I got a real feel that the rally had begun.

Teruhito Sugawara: We were able to keep up a good pace again today. That said, there were parts where we exceeded the speed limit by 1-3km/h due to our speed limiter setup, and the organizers pointed this out to us at the finish line. We may be penalized for this, so that is a bit of a concern.

Hiroyuki Sugiura: Navigation wasn't very hectic, but it was unfortunate that we couldn't control our top speed as well as we wanted to. The truck is doing just fine.