FIA Middle East Rally Championship to begin on April 26

AMMAN — The Jordan Rally will kickstart the FIA Middle East Rally Championship (MERC) for the first time on April 26-28, a statement from the Jordan Rally media service said on Wednesday.

Organised by Jordan Motorsport, the event has switched from its traditional date at the start of May and will now run a week earlier over 15 special stages through the Dead Sea and Jordan Valley areas.

With the Qatar International Rally switching to a new date in November, the spotlight will firmly be on the Kingdom to see who will be hoping to topple multiple champion Nasser Al Attiyah at the top of the championship standings in 2018.

Attiyah has won the last six Jordan rallies and taken 11 wins in total on his way to 13 MERC titles. “We are delighted to announce another challenging route for the Jordan Rally and are proud to have been chosen to open this year’s prestigious regional FIA rally championship,” said Othman Nassif, chairman of the organising committee.

Jordan Motorsport has laid on 234.20 competitive kilometres in a compact route of 504.27km. The event gets under way with a timed super special stage of 2 kilometres on the shores of the Dead Sea from 4:24pm on April 26.

The second day, April 27, features two runs through the Mahes (20km), Palms (36km) and Baptism Site (8.55km) special stages; the action concludes on April 28 with two runs through the Suwayma, Rawda, Amar and Ma’in specials, according to the statement.