Jordan Rally to host 22 cars for Middle East championship’s 4th round

AMMAN — Jordan Motorsport on Monday announced that 22 cars grace the official entry list for the upcoming Jordan Rally, which will be the fourth round of the FIA Middle East Rally Championship (MERC) taking place between May 29 and 31. 

Crews will tackle a dozen special stages and 196.30 competitive kilometres in the Dead Sea and Jordan Valley areas. The event will also count towards the new Junior and Master Championships for Drivers, according to a Jordan Motorsport statement.

Nasser Attiyah and Candido Carrera head the field after winning the opening three rounds of the season in Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. 

They will be aiming to defend a 31-point lead over Rakan Rashed and Hugo Magalhães in their respective MERC Drivers’ and Co-drivers’ Championships. The record 16-time winner of the event lays trust in his Autotek Škoda Fabia RS Rally2. 

A total of eight Rally2 machines grace the entry list: defending regional champion Abdulaziz Kuwari, the 2023 MERC champion Abdullah Rawahi, Qatari Attiyah, Bassal Abu Hamdan and the Jordanian duo of Sheikh Bader Fayez and Ihab Shorafa complete the list. Both local drivers have entered Škoda Fabias.

Oman’s Zakariya Aamri and Abdullah Zubair are currently locked in their own battle for supremacy in the FIA MERC2 category in a pair of Subarus and they head a list of seven crews aiming for showroom class honours. 

Local knowledge may favour the defending regional champion Shaker Jweihan, while Kuwait’s Jassim Muqahwi and Salem Dhafeeri, Lebanon’s Shadi Fakih and Palestine’s Hamada Uda round off the MERC2 field. All five challengers to the front-running Omani duo wheel out Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Xs.

Qatari Rashid Mohannadi has a commanding lead in the two-wheel drive FIA MERC4 category after three rounds. He faces competition from young Qatar Academy drivers, Mohammed Marri and Saad Harqan, and Indian driver Payyakkal Panikkaveettil (Ford Fiesta). All three Qataris drive French-built Peugeot 208s.

The local duo of Shadi Shaban and Mohammed Shorafa and Lebanon’s Joanna Hasoun round off the entry in a trio of Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IXs. All but two of the 22 entrants are registered for the MERC.