On January 9, Dakar 2022 held its Stage 7 competition between the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh and Al-Duwadmi. The second half of the race has finally begun.

HINO TEAM SUGAWARA, which is competing in the Trucks category with the HINO 600 Series equipped with a hybrid system, ran this stage with a vehicle that was refreshed late last night by their mechanics. They crossed the finish line in 10th place overall in this category. The team’s cumulative rankings through the same day are still in 17th place overall.

The day’s itinerary began with a 209.73 km liaison from Riyadh to the west, heading for the start of the SS in the mountains north of Al-Duwadmi. The 401.74 km SS was generally fast, but there were many stones on the side of the road and many wadis that confused the course. There were also times when we were blinded by the dust from the cars ahead of us. After crossing several sand dunes, we finally reached the goal through a valley of wadi (dry river bed). From there, it was a 97.73 km liaison to the bivouac at Al-Duwadmi, making for a long day totaling over 709 km.

On the rest day, the HINO 600 Series driven by Teruhito Sugawara, Hirokazu Somemiya, and Yuji Mochizuki made adjustments to further reduce the shaking of the capacitor case and reviewed the rear suspension settings. This made it even easier to drive, but on this day, the engine exhaust temperature and engine oil temperature remained high, so the team ran with reduced power output. Also, the new control to increase power generation by fuel injection while coasting did not seem to be effective in eliminating turbo lag, so we cut the control midway through the run to reduce the engine load. Even so, the team maintained a steady pace, and accurately completed the navigation by capturing the waypoints (GPS coordinates that must be passed) while the cup (direction) indicated by the road book changed frequently, and crossed the finish line in 10th place in the truck category.

On the 10th, the team headed south from Al-Duwadmi to Wadi Ad-Dawasir, which is considered to be the difficult point of the second half of the race. The competition will finally reach its climax in the desert of the southwest.

Teruhito Sugawara
The rear suspension now works well, and together with the reduced vibration of the capacitor case, the bike is now stable and easy to ride. We had some engine issues, but basically it was a nice ride. There were a lot of hard parts today and the speed was high all around, but the sand was very soft.

Hirokazu Somemiya
This was a difficult stage to navigate, picking up waypoints while driving on wheel tracks to match the frequently changing cups. I saw a vehicle that missed a point and returned to collide head-on with another vehicle, but I think it was also risky, with terrible dust taking away your vision.

Yuji Mochizuki
The cause of the problem is not yet known, but the oil temperature and exhaust temperature remained high during the run, and I was worried about it. The car was ready to go, but we couldn’t let the engine drag us down. We also had to redo the control during coasting.