On January 13, the Dakar Rally 2026 entered the first day of the marathon stage in the second half in the northwestern region of Wadi Ad-Dawasir, Saudi Arabia, and completed a 410km competition. HINO TEAM SUGAWARA (Teruhito Sugawara / Hirokazu Somemiya / Yuji Mochizuki crew), competing in the truck class with the HINO600 series, continued to run smoothly and finished in 99th place overall in the four-wheel division / 9th place in class. They maintained their 8th place position in class with an overall cumulative ranking of 85th place.

The marathon stage of the second half is held between Wadi Ad-Dawasir and Bisha. Since the distance between both bivouacs is short at 366km via the assistance route, a temporary bivouac called "REFUGE" was set up north of Bisha. A competition route covering a round trip over two days was established.

Day 1's SS started from a point 119km west via liaison (transfer section) from Wadi Ad-Dawasir. The early stage featured high-speed piste on sandy terrain with dunes appearing, followed by entry into mountainous areas where the road surface varied with winding paths threading through trees, wadi crossings, and narrow canyons. The final stage consisted of approximately 60km of dune zones, with highly difficult dunes appearing.

HINO TEAM SUGAWARA ran smoothly despite being troubled by terrible dust. They passed through the early dunes without difficulty and cleared the complex navigation sections without loss. The final dunes included difficult spots such as severely collapsed dunes, but they crossed them steadily and arrived at the goal.

After the SS, they proceeded 2.5km via liaison to the "REFUGE." With the team's assistance crew absent, Team Hino Sugawara, centered around onboard mechanic Yuji Mochizuki, performed simple vehicle inspections and prepared for the second day of competition.

Teruhito Sugawara
Today I had the impression there were quite a few high-speed sections. The final dunes had some difficult spots, but no problems. The vehicle had no troubles and no punctures. Tomorrow will be centered on dunes and is likely to be the climax of this rally.

*Rankings are provisional as of 3:00 AM JST on the 14th