http://www.jordanrally.com/ The World Rally Championship (WRC) will take place on the shores of the Dead Sea in Jordan from the 24 to 27 April 2008 with Jordan becoming the first Arab country to host this event.

 No world championship rally has been held in the Middle East before, even though the region has run an active championship for 24 years, in which Jordan has always been a front runner. Jordan is also the first Arab nation to be invited in to the World rally series. There is no doubt that the country has a lot to offer every visitor but the Dead Sea is the most impressive of all. Anyone two years ago who witnessed the visiting four-times World Champion Tommi Makinen floating on the water of the Dead Sea and reading a copy of the rally programme will agree that this is no ordinary place.

Of course the spectacle of Petra, one of the new seven wonders of the world, will take the breath away, but the way that the rally goes into the mountains then dives down far below the level of the sea is amazing. It is also easily accessible, with the rally HQ only 50km away from the capital Amman.

This event features an unusually wide range of altitudes on the special stages, not far short of the range experienced in Turkey and Monte Carlo. In fact the highest stage will not go much above 1000 meters - but the lowest goes down to minus 400 metres - and most of the stages are below sea level.

Weather conditions are bound to be scorching. The 2005 candidate rally was held at Dead Sea level temperatures of over 40 degrees. Jordan is an event with strong royal connections; King Abdullah used to compete personally, twice finishing third overall, and his brother, Feisal, is the Chairman of the organising committee

The organisers have worked hard for many years to get to their present level in the sport, and you can be sure they want this year's debut WRC event in the Hashemite Kingdom to be a spectacular one.