The 10th stage competition was held on a 371km loop-shaped course in the mountains of northwestern Saudi Arabia.
Approximately 80% of the SS (competition section) was gravel, starting from a hilly area 178km east from the Alula bivouac via a liaison (travel section).
The course surface was sandy and rocky in places, requiring complicated navigation, and the sand dust continued to be heavy through the day.
The Hino Team Sugawara’s HINO 600 series, which participated in this stage, maintained a good pace against large-vehicle rivals and ran smoothly without any punctures or trouble.There was a waypoint that they were required to pass where they had to deviate from the course and went around, so the navigation was hectic, but they succeeded in passing it.
Finally, the team crossed the finish line through the same sandy off-road as the prologue and the first stage of this year’s tournament.They completed the SS in 8th place in the trucks category, and as Claudio Bellina team (IVECO POWERSTAR), which had been ahead of them until the previous day with a 55-minute difference, fell behind, they moved up one place in the cumulative ranking to 7th place in the category.
The Dakar Rally 2024 is now in its final stages.
On January 18th, participants will head from Alula to the finish line in Yanbu.
It is the longest SS of this year’s rally, at 480km, and will be the final and most difficult challenge.
Teruhito Sugawara:
Navigation was tricky today and there were some places where we could easily make mistakes.The sand dust was heavy all day long.
At the end, we drove about 30km through the same sandy area as the prologue and the first stage.
Partly because our rival fell behind, but I’m glad to be able to finish in 7th place.
Hirokazu Somemiya:
It was a hectic day of navigation trying to find waypoints.But I think I was able to complete it without any problems.
Tomorrow is going to be a long day, so I’ll do my best.
Yuji Mochizuki:
The truck was in good condition with no problems.
Today, in addition to calling out distances to waypoints, I also tried making minor direction corrections to help with navigation instructions.The AT had been replaced during the first half of the race due to the mileage, but we will have it replaced again with the original one in tonight’s maintenance.
