Juma’ wins National Rally Championship 4th round and title

MADABA — Khaled Juma’s reign continued on Friday as he was crowned champion of the fourth round of the National Rally Championship “La Storia Museum Rally” with the participation of nine drivers.

With this win, Juma’ became the undisputed winner of the National Rally Championship for the 2016 season for the second year in a row with 112.5 points followed by Salameh Qamaz in the second place with 69 points and Ihab Shurafa in the third place with 52.5 points.

Qamaz and Shurafa will still have a chance to battle it for the second and third place at the fifth round as Sharafa still has an opportunity to advance to second place if he wins the fifth round or Qamaz retires.

Juma’ told The Jordan Times that this is a great season.

“This is the moment I have been waiting for in this challenging season and I did it. Last year, it was also tough but winning two season in a row is truly great and I am happy,” he said.

“The rally was tough as it was on asphalt roads and although you have freedom to go fast it is still not easy and you worry more about the tyres especially when it is hot, but it was cool,” he added.

Juma’ and co-driver Imad Juma clocked 42m49s in their Mitsubishi Evo 10 followed by Shurafa and co-driver Hazem Ateyat with 45m58s in their Mitsubishi Evo 9 in the second place while Qamaz and co driver Ahmed Zeidan settled in the third place with 46m14s in their Mitsubishi Evo 5.

The rally witnessed the retirement of Fares Tell, Ahmed Shaban and Thaer Taimeh due to mechanical problems. 

Drivers had to go through Bahra (9.76km), Kroum (5.46km) and Ghernata (6.03km) three times each with a total distance of 184.57km including 63.9km of special stages.

The rally takes its name from the famous La Storia Museum Complex in Madaba which is a combination of folk, history and handicrafts centre.