January 9 is the last day of the first half of the season. At the same time, the second day of the marathon stage, the competition was held between AlUla ~ Hayil. In the HINO600 series of Hino Team Sugawara, which had a flat tire on the previous day's trip to AlUla and had only one spare tire left, it did not get a flat tire on this day, and on this day, it finished in 67th place overall in the four-wheel category and 6th place in the truck division. He finished the first half of the race in 56th place overall in the four-wheeled division and 7th in the truck division.

The day's itinerary started from the marathon bivouac in AlUla, followed by a short liaison (moving section) of 1 km, followed by a 428 km SS (competition section). The road surface was half hard gravel and half sandy, and high-speed and low-speed sections appeared repeatedly. There are many places where navigation is complicated, and at the end of the game, you can reach the finish line through Fecifesi, which has a soft surface. Visibility is obscured by rising dust, and the vehicle speed is low on bad roads. It was an SS of patience.

Teruhito Sugawara, Hirokazu Somemiya, and Yuji Mochizuki kept a steady pace in the HINO600 while paying attention to punctures. Other than damaging the rear fender on the right side, it ran without any problems.

Later, when we started driving 64km to the bivouac in Heil, we had a problem with the rear brake pads and rotors sticking, but we recovered safely when the brake temperature dropped during the inspection.

On the 10th, we will have an intermediate day here. There will be no competition, and the schedule is to refresh the vehicles and occupants in preparation for the second half of the race from the 11th. The Hino team had planned to replace parts on a regular basis, mainly the drivetrain and suspension, and when the car arrived at the bivouac, the mechanics who had been waiting for the car since the day before immediately got to work.

Teruhito Sugawara
We were able to finish the first half of the match in the position we were expecting. We are far from the top of the track division, but we are able to compete with the second and third place. We didn't have many troubles and would like to keep our good form going into the second half of the match.

Hirokazu Somemiya
Yesterday, there was a mistake in the roadbook, and the group made a mistake on the course. Even so, the instructions for the cup (direction) are so detailed that it is difficult to convey them to the driver. The first half of the game is finally over, and my neck hurts from the vibrations.

Yuji Mochizuki
Last night was a marathon bivouac, so I did a full inspection, but there was no problem other than the damage to the body. I'm glad I didn't have a puncture today. I think the sticking of the last pad is due to the fact that it stopped at a high temperature.