Amman [Jordan], May 14: The Jordan Rally gets underway from the Hover-Up park on the shores of the Dead Sea from 7pm on Thursday evening.
Seventeen crews representing 10 nations in the third round of this year's FIA Middle East Rally Championship (MERC) will be joined by 21 teams registered for points in a pair of national rallies running on Friday and Saturday. All competitors will tackle a dozen special stages in the Jordan Valley and Dead Sea areas with 196.80 competitive kilometres in a route of 557.11km.
Qatar's Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah is a 20-time regional champion and the top seed this weekend. He teams up with Spanish co-driver Candido Carrera in a bid to move up the points' standings after a win in Oman and a surprise retirement at his home event in Qatar.
The Qatari is fourth in the rankings in an Autotek Motorsport Skoda Fabia RS and is chasing an unprecedented 18th victory in Jordan since 2003.
Five Rally2 rivals will be gunning to prevent Al-Attiyah achieving success on the dry and dusty Jordanian stages, where energy-sapping heat can easily take its toll on man and machine on the scenic stages at the lowest place on earth.
Saudi Arabia's Hamza Bakhashab continues to exceed expectations in his first full MERC season. The 22-year-old, from Jeddah, has made an impressive start to his campaign: he recovered strongly from first-day suspension damage in Oman in January to secure valuable championship points, before delivering a career-best MERC result in Qatar with second overall behind Al Attiyah.
Those performances alongside Irish co-driver Lorcan Moore in a Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 have netted the youngster 42 championship points. That leaves him just five behind championship leader Nasser Khalifa Al Atya and his Lebanese co-driver Ziad Chehab in a Motortune Ford Fiesta after two excellent podium finishes for the veteran. Bakhashab is also aiming to follow in the footsteps of his father Abdullah, who won the regional Drivers' Championship back in 1995.
The young Saudi said: "Qatar was an important result for us and gave me and the whole team a lot of confidence. Every rally in MERC is a learning experience for me and Jordan will be another big challenge. The championship is very competitive this season, so the priority is to stay consistent, keep improving and score strong points."
Oman's Abdullah Al-Rawahi won the Jordan Rally for the first time in 2023 and shadowed Al Attiyah to the finish in Oman back in January to pick up points for second. Like his rival, he retired in Qatar and needs a useful points score to rekindle his challenge for a second regional title. Al Rawahi again teams up with local co-driver Ata Al Hmoud in an Oman Rally Team Skoda Fabia RS.
Competition in MERC2 comes from Oman's Zakariya Al Aamri (Subaru) and Jordan's Sami Fleifel (Mitsubishi). Al Aamri is already 36 points adrift of the young Jordanian.
Engine-related issues ruined the start of the season for the Qatari duo of Rashid Al Muhannadi and Mohammed Al Marri in a pair of Sarrazin-run Peugeot 208 Rally 4s entered by the Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation (QMMF). Both drivers are pointless after two rounds. They team up with co-drivers Szymon Gospodarczyk and Piere Delorme on this occasion.
Lebanon's Shadi El-Fakih will be chasing a third maximum points score of the season in FIA MERC4 in his Renault Clio RS. Jordanian female driver Farah Zakaria teams up with Lebanese Dolyne Schlink and is registered for the championship in a Can-Am Maverick X3 entered in the SSV section.
A new Shakedown stage of 4.83km kickstarts the competitive action on Thursday. A revised Friday timetable features two passes through the Shuna (15.25km), Baptism (11.24km) and Ma'in (16.87km) stages, split by a return to the Dead Sea for a midday service and regroup.
Saturday's revised schedule includes two runs through the Panorama (16.95km), Suwayma (11.12km) and Rawda (26.97km) specials in the Jordan Valley and Dead Sea areas before the ceremonial finish takes place in the Hover-Up Park at the lowest place on earth from 18.30hrs.
Source: Qatar Tribune
