The second day of the second half of the race was from Al-Duwadmi to Wadi ad-Dawasir. The 394 km of competition was held in the mountainous areas along the way. HINO TEAM SUGAWARA’s HINO 600 Series trucks equipped with a hybrid system fought hard to finish in 18th place in the Trucks category. The team showed off its strong performance by improving its cumulative ranking to 16th overall.

The second half of Dakar 2022 will head to the south-central part of the country, with the deserts around Wadi ad-Dawasir, the northern edge of the Rub al Khali Desert, expected to be the focal point. The SS (competition segment) for the day was set in the mountainous southwestern part of the country, just before that, on the 166.45 km liaison from Al-Duwadmi.

The SS started in the mountainous area at an elevation of about 1000 meters. The road surface was sandy from the beginning, with small dunes appearing. The sand was soft and the dunes continued to be challenging. From the middle of the SS, there were repeated valleys and wadi (dry river). After the finish of the SS, there was a 268.94 km liaison to the bivouac at Wadi ad-Dawasir, making it the longest stage of the event at 830.29 km.

Teruhito Sugawara / Hirokazu Somemiya / Yuji Mochizuki’s HINO 600 series ran the SS of the day with a slight problem, the boost pressure of the turbo did not rise as expected. There was a moment when the truck was about to get stuck on the top of the dunes, but the three of them cooperated and succeeded in escaping in a short time. Approximately 20km before the goal, there were some problems such as a flat tire on the right rear wheel, but the team finished running in 18th place in the truck category and succeeded in raising the cumulative ranking to 16th place.

On the 11th, the competition will be held on a loop course starting from Wadi ad-Dawasir.

Teruhito Sugawara

The resistance of the soft sand was so great that I once got stuck at the top of a dune. We were able to get out in about 6 minutes by jacking the rear wheel. Just before the finish line, there seemed to be a stone in the sandy surface and we got a flat tire on my right rear wheel. It was a bit of a frustrating day.

Hirokazu Somemiya

It was a busy stage with stacking, digging for sand, and tire changing work. There is an exhaust pipe running under the navigator’s seat, so my buttocks get hot during long stages.

Yuji Mochizuki

Cut off the power generation control while coasting and the problem of rising exhaust temperature was solved. It seems that the engine was overloaded. Today, for some reason, the turbo’s boost pressure did not increase and there was a lack of power in the dunes. I’ll check it out.