Jordan Rally
The Jordan Rally ( officially Jordan Rally ) is since 2008 a round of the FIA World Rally Championship ( WRC). The rally takes place, however, since 1981 and was from 1984 also by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile organized Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile -Middle East Rally Championship ( MERC ). The rally will take place in the Kingdom of Jordan. The Jordan Rally counts in the 2012 season, not the World Rally Championship, it will be replaced this year by the Monte Carlo Rally.
History and route
The Jordan Rally, was taken as the first held in the Middle East Rally, from the 2008 season in the evaluation of the World Rally Championship. This season, the rally was also the first time counted in the JWRC. The following year, they did not count for the World Rally Championship. For the years 2010 ( SWRC and PWRC also ) and 2011, she was readmitted to the World Rally Championship calendar. The former rally driver, chairman of the Association Jordan Motorsports, lieutenant general of the armed forces of Jordan Prince Faisal bin Al Hussein is that, since 2010, member of the IOC, is a sponsor of this event. For example, the "Dead Sea Centre " in 2008 from the nothingness of the desert, a 50,000 m² large area for the reception of the paddock, with the help of the Jordanian army and the Ministry of Transport, Building and Housing, built from where a beautiful has views of the Dead Sea. Prince Faisal bin Al Hussein and the rally organizers had to be made in the following years tried very hard to rally a fixture on the calendar. This rally is the biggest sporting event in the country and one hopes for the international media interest. As tourism accounts for about 10 % of gross domestic product and thus is the second most important source of foreign exchange, one hopes for the PR value of the event.
The paddock with the service park is located about 50 kilometers south of the capital Amman, the Dead Sea, close to the deepest point of the Earth ( which is not covered with water). The special stages are discharged with partially above 40 ° C in the shade, in the desert of Jordan to the Dead Sea. The highest passage of a special stage is just over 1000 meters above sea level. Most parts of the rally but find below zero sea level down to the Jordan Valley instead ( well 420 m below sea level ). This makes the rally to an unusual enrichment in the list of World Rally Championship rounds. Since all stages are relatively close to the Park Service, it is also one of the more compact rallies in the world championship. The track itself, however, is quite challenging, so in 2008 retired from approximately one-third of the started vehicles due to accidents or defects. Two years later, in 2010, hosting the teams and crews had been better adjusted to these conditions, and it reached only five vehicles for such reasons, not the destination. In that year, some stages were replaced, the capital was moved north in the wooded mountains of Jordan before it went back into the desert on the first day.