ŠKODA rally driver Jan Kopecký and his co-driver Pavel Dresler have won the European Rally Championship (ERC) for Škoda with races to spare.

Kopecký, driving a Škoda Fabia Super 2000, is the first Czech driver ever to win the ERC.

“Winning the title is a dream come true for me. I would like to thank Škoda Motorsport and our fantastic team for the amazing work they have done this season,” Kopecký said.

After four second places in the International Rally Challenge (IRC) between 2009 and 2012, the Europ-ean Championship title is the pinnacle of the 31-year-old driver’s motorsport career.

Kopecký joins a host of rally legends to have won the ERC, including Germany’s Walter Röhrl and Italian Miki Biasion.

Dresler is also certain of first place in the co-driver competition come the end of the season. “It is the icing on the cake at the end of a fantastic season in the Škoda and the highlight of my career,” he said.

The title is the just reward for an outstanding season for Kopecký and Dresler in the Škoda Fabia Super 2000. The first seven starts this season have produced seven podium finishes.

The highlight for Kopecký came in the form of a home win at the Barum Rally early in September. 2013 also yielded victories at the ERC rallies in Austria, on the Canary Islands, in the Azores and in Romania. As such, Kopecký has stood on the top step of the podium at rallies on all surfaces – from snow and ice to gravel and asphalt.

Škoda has been taking part in motorsport events since 1901 and has won numerous titles in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC), the European Rally Cham-pionship (ERC) and other popular individual races, such as the world’s oldest rally in Monte Carlo.