After experiencing the high point of the FIA World Rally Championship season in Mexico earlier this month, BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team journeys to the lowest point on earth in the Middle East next week. The squad, which leads the manufacturers’ standings with the record-breaking Focus RS World Rally Car after two of 13 rounds, tackles the Jordan Rally (1 - 3 April) which is based 420 metres below sea level on the arid shores of the Dead Sea.
The rally debuted in the WRC in 2008 when it became the first round hosted by an Arab country since 1976. Ford drivers Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen won two years ago and the Finns, along with team-mates and fellow countrymen Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila, have their sights set on another strong performance in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
The low-level location of the gravel speed tests clustered near the Dead Sea will offer a boost to the performance of the Focus RS WRC. In contrast to Mexico where low air pressure at altitudes of up to 2700 metres meant less oxygen was available to burn the fuel in the engine, resulting in less power, the opposite will be true in Jordan. However, temperatures that are expected to approach 30ºC will ensure the power output will not be as high below sea level as it would be with cooler and wetter conditions.
The rally takes advantage of new-for-2010 rules to run from Thursday to Saturday, to fit in with the Islamic weekend. The heaviest rain in Jordan for 20 years earlier this year decimated large parts of the route, making many scheduled special stages impassable and severely damaging the service park. Huge efforts, involving the army and the Government, helped rebuild the roads although the damage in some sections was too great to repair and the route has been slightly shortened.
The desert roads are gravel but 29-year-old Hirvonen said the stages were unlike any other loose surface round. “The surface is hard and it feels like driving on asphalt. There will be loose gravel on the surface for the first pass through the stages, so the car will need a slightly soft set-up. But when the stages are repeated and the roads are clean the set-up will be harder, almost like we use on asphalt. There are no ditches there and in some bends it’s possible to make big cuts, so we can’t make the car too low. It’s a compromise set-up between gravel and asphalt,” he said.
“It’s the most difficult rally of the year on which to make pace notes. It’s fast and high speed sections are punctuated by small crests. But suddenly the rhythm can change and you come over a crest to find a series of hairpin bends. There are no trees or bushes in the desert to use as sight lines so the notes must be pin-point accurate. We’ve analysed the reasons why we weren’t as competitive as we had hoped on the last round in Mexico and tried a few options during our test in Sardinia this week. I’m confident we’ll be fully competitive in Jordan,” added Hirvonen, who lies second in the drivers’ table.
Latvala finished seventh in Jordan in 2008, after lying in the top three for much of the rally. Like Hirvonen, it is the road surface and the rhythm changes that he identifies as key aspects of the event.
“In 2008 the roads had a fine layer of sand lying on top of a hard, smooth base and it made them slippery during the first pass,” said Latvala, who hopes to celebrate his 25th birthday in style on the final day of the rally. “The sand was swept away and in the second pass the roads were so hard and grippy that you could see black braking marks from the tyres on the surface – just like asphalt. It has rained hard there recently so I expect the surface might be a little softer and more loose this year.
“The roads are man-made in places and it means there is no natural flow to them so they are difficult to follow. They often turn immediately after a crest and I was nearly caught out on a few occasions two years ago. My pace notes were not accurate enough and I need to improve them on next week’s recce.
“The roads were built with rocks as a base and they are visible on the side of the track. In corners where it’s possible to take a cut, these stones are dragged out by the cars and it’s easy to damage the suspension by hitting a rock while trying to save a second or two,” added Latvala.
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