On January 2nd, Dakar 2022, HINO TEAM SUGAWARA's HINO 600 Series Hybrid truck, piloted by Teruhito Sugawara, Hirokazu Somemiya, and Yuji Mochizuki, crossed the finish line at 28th place overall in the Trucks category in Stage 1B, a 333-km SS (competition segment) on a loop course based on Hail in the north of the country.

With this result, the Team is now in 28th place overall.

　Finally, a full-scale stage with a long SS distance began. On this day, after a 59.9 km liaison (moving section) from the bivouac to the west side of the city, the Team faced a large 333.18 km loop SS set in the surrounding mountainous area. After the finish line, the Team was set to return to the bivouac in Hail for another 121.30 km liaison. The road surface was mostly sandy pistes (unpaved roads), but it had a lot of variety, including dune crossings, steep downhills with large differences in elevation, rocky terrain, and sections where you could ride at speed. Navigation also required great care as there were many branches and waypoints that were difficult to find.

　The HINO Team started running the SS on that day in 22nd place in the truck division, but there were minor problems such as the hybrid system shutting down and the turbine pipe cracking while driving. Even so, the Team kept a good pace and moved up to 18th place, but they suffered a missed course of about 2 hours in the section where it was difficult to find a waypoint at the end of the stage, resulting in a drop in position to 28th place.

Due to the late start order of the rally, the Team arrived back at Hail around 10:30 pm. With the temperature dropping below 10 degrees Celsius, the mechanics at Hail immediately set to work to fix the problem before the next morning's departure.

　The trip to Al Artawiyah scheduled for the 3rd was cancelled because the bivouac was submerged by the heavy rain that fell in the area. After the SS, the Team had to head to the next bivouac, Al Qahma. As a result, the marathon route between Khayr and Al Artawiyah, which was scheduled to take place as a marathon bivouac without a support team, has been cancelled.

Teruhito Sugawara

It was a disappointing day as we lost time. We have been able to confirm the effectiveness of the hybrid truck, but the weight balance of the truck is not quite right, making it difficult for us to increase our pace. We are still in the early stages of the race, so I would like to do whatever I can to improve our position.

Yuji Mochizuki

We just ran the Dakar race and had some trouble with the new equipment and improvements we made. I would like to make sure that we make the necessary repairs and improvements for the future.

Hirokazu Somemiya

I made a mishap when I couldn't find the GPS waypoints that I was required to pass. In the end, I cleared all of them, but the loss was great. I will change my mind tomorrow and do my best.

Teruhito Sugawara, Hirokazu Somemiya, and Yuji Mochizuki waving on the podium.