Dakar 2025 entered its second half on January 11 with a competition between Hail ~ Al Dwadhimi in Saudi Arabia. The SS (competition section) of the day started in the hilly area 101 km from Ha'il and stretched 605 km to the mountainous area near Al Dwadimi with a 171 km transfer section (paved road) on the way. In addition, it was a long journey of 829 km, reaching the bivouac in a liaison of 123 km.

Hino Team Sugawara, which competes in the track division in the HINO600 Series, showed a bold drive and moved up the standings in the technical sections. With about 200km to go, he had trouble braking, but he kept going and finished 75th overall in the four-wheel category and 7th in the track category. As a result, the cumulative ranking by the 11th was 53rd overall in the four-wheel category, and the position of 7th in the truck division was maintained.

The SS starts with a high-speed section over the plateau, but after the 160km mark, the road becomes rocky and the pace slows down. After that, there were many low-speed sections, such as winding with stones hidden in the soil. After the transfer section at 233km~404km, the road surface becomes sandy and sand dunes appear. The Hino team reached sunset with about 100km to go, but they ran carefully and reached the finish line.

After completing the SS, the brakes were deflated and the left front wheel, which had a slow puncture, was replaced. We arrived at the bivouac of Al Dwadimi at about 10 p.m.

On the 12th, a 419km loop course based in the area is scheduled to be held.

Teruhito Sugawara
In the transfer section, I found that the wheel hub of the right front wheel was wet, and I added oil, thinking it was a leak from the hub reduction mechanism, but it was a brake. With about 200km to go, it stopped working, and I slowed down and went over the dunes. Also, with about 100km to go, the sun went down, so I slowed down my pace. I think it was a loss of about 30 minutes in total.

Hirokazu Somemiya
There were two places where it was difficult to navigate, but I did it as usual. After sunset, when visibility is limited, it will run more faithfully to the roadbook, so there is no problem in terms of navigation.

Yuji Mochizuki
I bleed the air on the brakes at the SS goal. However, when I got close to the goal of the liaison, it stopped working again. The slow puncture tires wilted as soon as I saw them, so I replaced them.