Dakar Rally 2024 held its second stage of competition on January 7 from Al Henakiyah to Al Duwadimi. After a liaison (travel section) of 73 km from the bivouac in Al Henakiyah, a 462 km SS (competition section) began from the hills. The road was mainly a speedy section that went over hard-surfaced hills and wadi (dried riverbeds), although there were some dunes, and the dust rolled up by the cars ahead was so severe that navigation was difficult in some places. On the other hand, the dunes were crumbling due to the passage of many vehicles ahead, causing several vehicles to fall over and increasing the level of difficulty.

The HINO 600 Series piloted by Teruhito Sugawara, Hirokazu Somemiya, and Yuji Mochizuki started this SS in 12th position in the trucks category. The truck started off smoothly, but at the 40 km point after passing through the dunes in the early part, the high gear of the sub transmission built into the transfer was unable to transmit drive power, forcing them to drive in the low range thereafter. However, the team's decision to use a shallower differential reduction ratio (higher gear ratio) for this year's race proved to be successful. Although they were passed by the following cars on the high-speed sections at speeds over 100 km/h, they were able to maintain their normal pace in the low to mid speed range and finished the race in 11th place, which is 53 minutes and 11 seconds behind the leader in the trucks category. With this result, the team's accumulated rankings until January 7 also moved up to 11th place in the category.

After the SS, the Hino team completed a 119 km liaison and arrived at the bivouac in Al Duwadimi, where the mechanics were waiting for them at around 7:30 pm. They held a meeting involving all the crew and staff, and then they immediately started working on individual tasks.

The third stage on January 8 is from Al Duwadimi to Al Salamiya. Once again, a 440 km long SS is scheduled. Tomorrow, the cars will only be allowed two hours to be serviced at the service park that will be set up after the SS finish line, so the cars will be in that condition for the competition at Al Hoff on January 9.
Therefore, today's work was carried out carefully, incorporating content in anticipation of this.

Teruhito Sugawara:
After leaving the dunes in the early part, I tried to shift the sub transmission from low to high range, but it did not work, I decided to run in the low range. For this race, we increased the gear ratio to be able to reach speeds of up to 108km/h even at low range, so we had no problems except for the high-speed sections. In fact, we were able to maintain high rotation and the engine had good response, so we were in good shape. Anyway, it was lucky that the trouble occurred today and not tomorrow.

Hirokazu Somemiya:
Navigation was not as difficult as I had heard, but I think the driver had a hard time raising the car speed due to the dust. I am back in good physical condition and doing well.

Yuji Mochizuki:
There seems to have been a problem with the sleeve/spline on the high side of the sub transmission. When running in low range and keeping high rotation, the boost was always effective and the engine was responsive. Water and oil temperatures were also fine. At the end of the SS, the fuel return pipe developed a leak, so I retightened it.