BP Ford team leader Mikko Hirvonen finally won an amazing Jordan Rally, the latest event held at world championship level, his first victory of the 2008 season and his personal fifth, after an event in which five drivers took turns holding the lead.

The arrival of the world rally championship into the Middle East, a region never visited before, was an exciting occasion. Crews discovered the highest organisational standards while drivers were introduced to some of the most tortuous and deceptive roads ever experienced. Based at a resort adjacent to the Dead Sea, which is one of the lowest altitudes on earth, this was a challenge of the unknown. The prospect of high temperatures daunted the engineers, especially because pre-event testing in any country with comparable climatic conditions is forbidden, while the drivers were astonished at the theme park ride characteristics of the stages. "Never has there been a rally where accurate pace notes will be so important," confirmed Ford driver Jari-Matti Latvala. "Here everything is yellow, you cannot look beyond a blind crest and sense which way the road would go!" The surfaces on the gravel stages were another big unknown, on account of specially prepared roads which seemed to be rock hard - but would they degrade with the passage of the rally cars? Every stage was to be used twice.

After the disappointing time for their rivals Ford in Argentina, Citroen travelled to Jordan full of hope that Sebastien Loeb would gain a magical 40th World rally win. For a while it seemed this was going to happen. Loeb started the first day first car on the road, and he suffered from the slippery gravel coating of the road, while his teammate Sordo started sixth car, a perfect opportunity to make the running on the opening stages which he did. On the second runs through the stages Loeb caught back lost time and closed the gap on Sordo, so at the end of Day 1 Citroens were lying first and second, the Fords of Latvala and Hirvonen third and fourth. Subarus continued to suffer damper troubles although Petter Solberg was equal leader after stage 1 and Atkinson ended the day fifth.

The stories which emerged on the second morning beggared belief. Loeb had got in front of Sordo on the first stage of the day, but no sooner had he competed stage 11 than he drove head-long into the front of another rally car on a road section and had to abandon for the day. And it wasn't just any other rally car, it was the Citroen C4 driven by Conrad Rautenbach, in fact an ex-works car which Loeb had often rallied himself! The narrow road was used by cars travelling in both directions with many blind bends, but crews had no need to hurry. Both cars looked badly damaged, but overnight they were repaired and able to restart on the final morning albeit with heavy penalties against the crews. Sordo found he was again running first car on the road and by the afternoon the two Fords had passed him into the lead, with Latvala leading Hirvonen and Sordo in third.

Then came the trickiest part, preparing for the final and longest day. Once again the stages were repeated but in the morning there was 67km of virgin uncleaned stages where the first car on the road would be at the greatest disadvantage. As the end of Day 2 approached Ford planned their strategy. Sordo would be the first driver to reach the end of the final stage of the day, and as soon as this happened Ford's tacticians calculated the times which Latvala and Hirvonen had to achieve in order to allow Sordo to regain the lead. As they reached the end of the stage the two Fords slowed right down, allowing their excess times to waste away. It was judged to a nicety and Sordo was forced back into the lead again and head the rally on the final day.It looked like the might of Ford would prevail but then Latvala had suspension trouble and dropped right ack handing the lead to teammate Hirvonen. Sordo consolidated second place and after a depressing rally when he sensed his car was well off the required speed Atkinson scored another podium place.

While the BP Ford team used all their experience to win the Jordan Rally, their subsidiary teams formed a massively strong back up support. In the Stobart team Henning Solberg struggled with brake problems for a long way but never gave up and came fourth overall, ahead of Matthew Wilson. Gigi Galli missed two stages after spinning backwards into a bank which damaged the rear differential oil cooler but on Day 2 he scored three fastest times and was classified eighth. In the Argentina-based Munchi's team car Federico Villagra finished sixth overall. The bravest story of all was the work of Barry Clark and his Argentinian codriver Jose Diaz, in the second Munchi's car, who finished 12th overall with no pre-event reconnaissance. Suzukis had a difficult rally, with neither driver finishing. Toni Gardemeister retired with a damaged engine after hitting a rock in the road and damaging his sump, while Per-Gunnar Andersson went off the road as well.

The Frenchman, Sebastien Ogier, scored his second successive JWRC victory, but this time won from behind. After Patrick Sandell consolidated his lead on the first day, Ogier had troubles galore. Firstly a bad problem with the fuel pump on his Citroen C2 S1600 which took mechanics an inordinately long time to fix, then shortly afterwards he hit a rock, punctured and had to stop in the stage to change the wheel. Of the 11 Junior cars still running, out of the 15 which started, he was down in ninth place. It all started to go his way. By the end of Day 2 he was up to second, and then when the leader Sandell went off the road Ogier was ahead. The official Suzuki Junior cars had a bad rally. Michal Kosciuszko stopped with engine trouble and Jan Molder crashed on the final day. Surviving constant gear selection troubles was the Irish driver Shaun Gallagher, whose eventual second place made this a Citroen 1-2.

3mmm
photo 1: Ford - Hirvonen
photo 2: Citroen - Loeb after accident
photo 3: Citroen - Rautenbach after accident