January 8th marked the second day of the first half's marathon stage. A 371km SS (special stage) was set on the route from "REFUGE," the competitor-only bivouac in northeast AlUla, to Hail, a city in northern Saudi Arabia. The HINO 600 Series (team of Teruhito Sugawara/Hirokazu Somemiya/Yuji Mochizuki crew) from Hino Team Sugawara, competing in the truck class, maintained a steady 10th place throughout the run, but moved up in position toward the end due to preceding vehicles falling back. They finished 112th overall in the four-wheel division and 8th in the truck class. As a result, their cumulative ranking rose to 95th overall, and their class ranking improved by one position to 8th place.

The SS for this day had independent routes prepared for motorcycles and four-wheel vehicles, continuing from the previous day. The road surface varied diversely, from high-speed pistes on sandy ground covered with camel grass, to climbs on soft wadis (dry riverbeds), to sandy areas with many stones. It was a stage that alternated between high-speed sections and low-speed sections requiring caution. Hino Team Sugawara continued to run smoothly, clearing the latter half's rocky sections without forcing it and without any punctures. They also navigated through complex navigation sections that could induce wrong courses without any mistakes.

After the SS goal, they traveled 54km of liaison to Hail. They reunited at the bivouac with the assistance team that had moved ahead the previous day, and the mechanics began their first inspection work in two days.

On the 9th is the final leg of the first half. They will head to the capital Riyadh and face a 331km SS.

Teruhito Sugawara
The first part had similar road surface conditions to the previous day with terrible dust, so we couldn't increase our speed. But from the middle section it became a high-speed zone, and before the goal, in addition to that, there were many places where stones were scattered everywhere. Today we had no punctures and maintained a stable pace throughout, so I think our position improved toward the end because preceding vehicles were delayed by punctures.

Hirokazu Somemiya
There were some difficult navigation points toward the end, but we cleared them with ease. The patterns included selecting the correct route relying on cap (bearing) instructions amid continuous forks, and scenes where we made large turns while finely changing cap instructions. The throat pain from dust continues, but I'm managing by gargling every time we stop.

Yuji Mochizuki
The vehicle had no problems today either. I'm pleased that we were able to clear the first half's marathon stage without any trouble. Our cumulative ranking also improved by one position, but there's still a long way to go, so we'll continue without letting our guard down.

*Rankings are provisional as of 0:00 JST.