Sport | Other Sports
Jordan rally revamped to meet the demand
Jordan is set to deliver on its promise of unveiling something special to the motorsporting world by staging the second most compact rally of the 2008 FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) from April 24-27.
- Staff Report
- Published: 00:15 February 7, 2008
Dubai: Jordan is set to deliver on its promise of unveiling something special to the motorsporting world by staging the second most compact rally of the 2008 FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) from April 24-27.
The Jordan Rally has been completely revamped in readiness to welcome the world and it has created an event tailor-made to the needs of the modern day global championship, which is visiting the Arab World for the first time since Morocco in 1976.
As a result, the 2008 Jordan Rally WRC will consist of 950kms in total, of which 343 will present the world's top drivers with some of the most testing competitive kilometres of the year.
The remaining 607kms will be the road sections that link the timed special stages.
"When we announced our bid to join this prestigious championship back in 2005 we listened to what the WRC expected of a new event," said Prince Faisal Al Hussain, Chairman of Jordan Motorsport, which manages and organises the Jordan Rally WRC.
"We realised then that what we had was simply not good enough and so we have completely changed our rally to meet the expectations of a world-class event.
"It has taken us three years and I am happy to announce that we now have a compact and centralised event which is in line with what we promised to deliver to the WRC family three years ago."
Mexico heads the list
Jordan is now the second-most compact event on the 2008 calendar behind Mexico and all the action will be held within 40km of the Dead Sea where the rally headquarters, Service Park and official hotel will be located.
The northern Rumman forest stages have been axed for 2008 in preference for two new twisty and challenging stages closer to the rally nucleus.
One of those two new 'venues' - the Jordan River Stage - is 33kms and the longest stage of the rally.
As a unique feature to the rally, drivers will be competing at 400m below sea level at the Dead Sea - the world's lowest land point - right up to 650m above sea level in the mountains of Mount Nebo and close to Ma'in Hot Springs.
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