Yoshimasa Sugawara arrives at La Paz in great shape
Hino Team Sugawara’s Car 1 got bogged down on the Stage 5 SS and took five hours to free the truck. Driver Yoshimasa Sugawara began feeling symptoms of altitude sickness after clearing Car 1 but was able to recover after resting at the bivouac and breathing oxygen.
At 10pm on January 6, organizers announced that they would be cancelling all rally competition for the following day because of the late arrival of several vehicles that were mired in heavy mud and the fact that SS road surfaces scheduled for Jan. 7 had become too undrivable due to ongoing rain.
All vehicles were redirected to a liaison route to La Paz, Bolivia’s capital that sits in a bowl-shaped basin at an elevation of 3200 – 3600m. This meant that the competition for the first half of the rally concluded on Jan. 6 and all teams will have January 8 to rest and prepare for the second half beginning on Jan. 9.
As this was the first time the Dakar Rally made a stop in La Paz, the sides of the liaison route were packed with hundreds of thousands of excited locals who came to catch a glimpse of the rally vehicles en route to the bivouac. Meanwhile, mechanics worked hard in the rain, servicing the trucks in preparation for the next stage of the rally.
“Given this weather, there wasn't much the organizers could do but to cancel the SS,” said Car driver Teruhito Sugawara. “This consequently made the first half shorter, but the second half will continue to meet us with challenging segments and we are highly motivated to keep going.”