Jordan Motorsport has revised the itinerary for the Jordan Rally, round four of the 2022 FIA Middle East Rally Championship (MERC), on May 19th-21st.
A three-time round of the FIA World Rally Championship and regarded as one of the toughest gravel events of its kind, the 2022 rally features 12 demanding loose-surface stages in a compact two-day format.
Friday
Friday’s (May 20th) three stages are run in the morning and repeated in the afternoon around the Jordan Valley, north of the Dead Sea. The action starts with the 9.71km Yakrut stage (first car 08.27hrs), which winds along off-road trails to the left of the main desert road between Amman and the Dead Sea hotel area.
Next comes a mammoth 40.79km stage (first car 09.49hrs) along the Jordan River valley near the border with the West Bank. It can be affected by bad weather and has produced plenty of drama over the years.
The loop ends with an 11.34km stage (first car 10.43hrs) near the historic Baptism Site, and the three stages are repeated from 12.47hrs, 14.05hrs and 15.17hrs.
Saturday
Saturday (May 21st) starts with the first of two passes through the 12.69km Bahath stage, to the right of the main Amman-Dead Sea highway, from 08.52hrs. Crews then tackle an 11.08km stage at Suwayma (first car 09.26hrs) and the 17.00km Ma’in 1 (first car 10.24hrs), north and east of the Dead Sea hotel area, before returning to service before midday.
The three stages are repeated from 12.26hrs, 13.00hrs and 13.58hrs, with the podium finish at 16.30hrs beside the Dead Sea. Competitors face 205.22 competitive kilometres in a 588.62km route.
A famous finish
In 2011 these punishing stages produced the closest finish in FIA World Rally Championship history. Frenchman Sébastien Ogier, driving a Citroën DS3 WRC, overhauled Finland’s Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford Fiesta RS), who led by 0.046 seconds before the final 10.50km Baptism Site Power Stage, to win by just 0.2 seconds after the pair traded blows over slightly different versions of the Yakrut, Bahath and Mahes stages.