Ford Abu Dhabi team driver Sheikh Khalid Al Qassimi says that the Jordan Rally has a very different character from other rallies in the region.
Al Qassimi, a winner of the event in 2007, when it was run as part of the FIA Middle East Rally Championship, is celebrating his 40th World Rally Championship start this weekend.
“This is a special place,” he said. “The stages aren’t very representative of the Middle East as a rally region.
“When I was racing in the Middle East Rally Championship there were a lot of desert stages. You had the feeling of the sand and the roughness. Over here there are more stones and it’s so narrow, you want to build your confidence and do the maximum but you need to balance things.
“That’s the beauty of the Middle East, you have a lot of different stages. Jordan has its own charisma. Coming from this area I’m really happy to have a world championship event here, for sure.
“Anything can happen at this rally. If you go off you can lose a heap of time. In 2008 I was seventh going into the last stage and then all of a sudden I had two flat tyres. It’s very important to me to finish in the top 10 and do better than I did last time.”
Credit: World Rally Championship (www.wrc.com)
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