Day 10

Teams Enter the Atacama Desert, the Climax of this Rally
Cars 2 and 1 arrive safely. Finish 17th and 36th for the SS.
Dakar Rally 2014 entered its crucial stages on January 14, with contestants competing on a 422km course starting at Calama in the Andes Mountains and finishing at Iquique on the Pacific coast. Once down from the highlands of Calama, contestants faced 40km of dunes in the later part of the SS. In a setup that has become something of a tradition; the finish at Iquique had the racers descend a precipitous sandhill to the bivouac that was set up by the coast.

With an aim to win its 5th straight championship in the Under 10-litre Class and finish at top rankings in the Trucks category overall, the crews of both HINO500 Series trucks fielded by HINO TEAM SUGAWARA pushed their trucks hard on the day's challenging courses to improve their positions. Teruhito Sugawara and Hiroyuki Sugiura of Car 2 finished at 5:37pm delivering a great performance that clocked them at 14th place overall and 1st in the Under 10-litre Class. Car 1 piloted by Yoshimasa Sugawara and Katsumi Hamura made a course error in the dunes sections in the later part of the SS, losing about 1 hour of time. The truck finished the SS at 36th place and made it back safely to the bivouac at around 9pm.