The Jordan Rally roared into life at the Hover-Up park by the Dead Sea on Thursday evening.
Seventeen crews competing in the third round of the FIA Middle East Rally Championship (MERC) were joined at the start ceremony by another 10 teams solely tackling the second and third rounds of the Jordan national series. They all will tackle a dozen gravel special stages on Friday and Saturday in the Jordan Valley and Dead Sea areas.
The new Hover-Up Park hosted the pre-event press conference and ceremonial start for the first time. Nestled in the sandy valley to the north of the Dead Sea, adjacent to a section of the Baptism Site and Suwayma special stages, the latest addition to Jordan’s already rich motor sporting history is a new drag racing track that also caters for off-roading and track days.
It provided the perfect back drop to the start of the Jordan Rally, which is being held under the patronage of H.R.H. Prince Feisal Al-Hussein, Chairman of Jordan Motorsport.
Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah is bidding for an 18th victory in the Hashemite Kingdom with Spanish co-driver Candido Carrera but also has to keep one eye on the Drivers’ Championship. He currently trails his cousin Nasser Khalifa Al-Atya by 12 points.
Al-Attiyah said: “It’s nice to be here again. It’s a difficult race and one of the most beautiful. After winning Oman, we went back to Qatar and were leading until we had a problem with a wheel rim. It was a mistake by the manufacturer. We lost a lot of points but we are here and well prepared. I have won here 17 times. I enjoy my life and I enjoy this event a lot. The stages are nice and the new Rawda stage will be new for everyone. It’s also easy to get a puncture there.
“We need to be clever to get full points because we don’t know what will happen with Lebanon and Cyprus and then the last race will be in Saudi Arabia. This is part of the WRC and more points will be available at that race. Winning here will make it easier for us at the end of the year.”
Oman’s Abdullah Al-Rawahi has consistently matched the Qatari on stages in recent seasons and he too needs as many points as possible after a difficult start to the year. Al-Rawahi is currently 19 points off the championship lead.
The Omani said: “It’s always a good feeling to be back to the place where I actually started rallying in the Middle East championship. These are some of the toughest stages in the region, very technical and the competition is high. We have been close to him (Al-Attiyah) for the last two years. We have taken another step forward and have been working really hard with the team to get the best set-up.
“Hopefully this time we get it right. The last stage, the Power Stage, is tough and quite rough in places. There are some tarmac sections but it is narrow and tricky and the pace notes need to be really precise. I’s going to be tough, especially with the heat.”
Al-Rawahi was the first driver to post a time in Thursday’s morning’s 4.83km Shakedown stage. He stopped the clocks in 3min 05.0sec, 12.4 seconds quicker than Hamza Bakhashab on his first of a maximum of two runs. Both drivers were markedly quicker on their second passes with Al-Rawahi topping the times by 5.2 seconds with a run of 2min 58.8sec.
Al-Attiyah and Al-Atya both sat out the shakedown opportunity but Sheikh Bader Al-Fayez and Bassel Abu Hamdan took advantage to finalise the set-up on their Skoda Fabia RSs.
The two QMMF-entered Peugeot 208 Rally4s were closely matched with Rashid Al-Muhannadi getting the better of young Mohammed Al-Marri by just 1.3 seconds, although Al-Marri did improve more on his second pass to set the fifth quickest time. Al-Muhannadi teamed up with French co-driver Florian Barral as a late replacement for Szymon Gospodarczyk.
Only 11 of the 17 FIA crews took advantage of the shakedown opportunity.
Leading Jordanian hope Shaker Jweihan knows that his only realistic hope of a podium is if several of his Rally2 rivals hit problems over the course of the next two days. He is dominating the FIA MERC2 category and is relishing the challenge of achieving a hattrick of category wins.
Jweihan said: “We are definitely feeling confident. We won the national rally here four weeks ago and that was similar to day one of the rally. The R5 cars are going to pull a lot of rocks on the track in front of us and that is going to be a problem. There should be some type of grading between the two loops because we will have a lot of loose rocks. The Power Stage is technical and new for everyone. The result will come down to that last stage!”
Competitors will tackle two passes through three stages on Friday. The first run through Shuna (15.25km) gets proceedings underway at 09.49hrs and this is followed by rapid-fire sprints through Baptism (11.24km) from 10.39hrs and Ma’in (16.87km), starting at 11.30hrs.
After a return to the Dead Sea for a midday service and regroup, the three stages are repeated in the afternoon from 13.49hrs, 14.39hrs and 15.30hrs.
2026 Jordan Rally – shakedown times:
1. Abdullah Al-Rawahi (OMA)/Ata Al-Hmoud (JOR) Skoda Fabia R5 Rally 2min 58.8sec
2. Hamza Bakhashab (KSA)/Lorcan Moore (IRL) Toyota GR Yaris Rally 2 3min 04.0sec
3. Bassel Abu Hamdan (KSA)/Firas Elias (LBN) Volkswagen Polo Rally 2 3min 21.3sec
4. Sheikh Bader Al-Fayez (JOR)/Joseph Matar (LBN) Skoda Fabia RS Rally 2 3min 26.7sec
5. Mohammed Al-Marri (QAT)/Pierre Delorme (FRA) Peugeot 208 Rally 4 3min 37.8sec
6. Hamadeh Uda (PAL)/Zeid Abu Zeid (JOR) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X* 3min 38.3sec
7. Shadi Shaban (JOR)/Samer Issa (JOR) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX 3min 38.6sec*
8. Mohammed Al-Shorafa (JOR)/Samer Sfeir (LBN) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX 3min 40.1sec
9. Rashid Al-Muhannadi (QAT)/Florian Barral (FRA) Peugeot 208 Rally 4 3min 44.2sec
10. Sami Fleifel (JOR)/Ameer Nassif (JOR) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X 4min 14.4sec
11. Farah Zakaria (JOR)/Dolyne Schlink (LBN) Can-Am Maverick X3 4min 27.2sec
*denotes not registered for the MERC