There was better news yesterday for Fiat in the IRC 2WD Cup on the 39th Barum Rally Zlín as Jiří Skoupil swatted away a horde of more fancied Honda and Peugeot runners to record a memorable victory for the venerable Fiat Punto S1600.

There was better news yesterday for Fiat in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) 2WD Cup on the 39th Barum Rally Zlín as rapid Czech Jiří Skoupil swatted away a horde of more fancied and bigger 2.0-litre engined Hondas to record a memorable victory for the venerable Fiat Punto S1600. "It’s fantastic to see ten points in the IRC against my name," he said at the finish. "The car was great, we have worked hard on it in the Czech championship and the rally suited both the car and us."

This was the little car's second consecutive 2WD Cup victory of the rally, and its second consecutive in the IRC as title-chasing Manuel Villa won the category last time out in Madeira. "It’s a very hard, very fast rally – like all Czech rallies!" said Skoupil. "To be honest we weren’t so sure how competitive our car would be against the bigger-engined Hondas but we have worked hard on preparing the car for just this type of rally."

With Tomáš Singer alongside, Skoupil unseated overnight leader Egon Smékal's Honda Civic Type R on the first stage of the final morning yesterday (Sunday) and by the end of Leg Two's six stage itinerary he had built up a healthy cushion of 1 minute and 41 seconds over the second placed JAS Engineering-built Honda Civic Type R3 of Hungarian László Vizin. Smékal took the final podium slot in the category and was the second local driver home in the 2WD Cup.

The Fiat Punto S1600 has embedded itself into rallying folk law following a series of giant-killing performances in the middle of this decade by the blue-and-yellow semi-factory cars piloted by Giandomenico Basso and Paulo Andreucci. Despite its age the Punto S1600, built to the then popular Super 1600 regulations, refuses to go quietly and in the Czech Republic, up against more modern and more developed cars it simply muscled them aside with distain. While Skoupil took the flag as IRC 2WD Cup winner the rally had started on Friday night with another quick Czech driver making the running in one of the Italian machines. Jan Šlehofer had made a hugely impressive start to the 39th Barum Czech Rally Zlín in his Punto S1600 posting the twenty fifth quickest time overall through the superspecial stage to mix it in with the hordes of much more powerful four-wheel-drive Super 2000 and GpN cars. Šlehofer came into the event with a tough reputation having won the 2WD class on last year's rally in the same Punto S1600 after pulling out a titanic performance, finishing nineteenth overall and beating the semi-official Honda Italy run Civic of IRC 2WD Cup title-chasing Alessandro Bettega. However this year his challenge for honours was quickly over when he suffered driveshaft failure between SS2 and SS3 on Saturday morning.

At the flag yesterday IRC 2WD Cup title chasing Denis Millet kept his pace behind the local stars to take fourth place in his unique Peugeot 207 RC, the only contemporary 1.6 turbo rally car in the world today, and move into the lead in the points standings for the first time this year. The title fight this year has come down to a straight fight between Millet and the Punto S1600 of Manuel Villa who skipped this round. The Italian has led the 2WD Cup points standings all year following an impressive victory on the Rallye Monte Carlo in January, his advantage cemented by second place on the SATA Rally Açores. He added a further 10 points to his tally win a win on the Rali Vinho Madeira earlier this month to leave him on 28 points. Five points this weekend for Millet this weekend, who has one won to his name this year, sees the Frenchman taking a narrow advantage in the neck-and-neck title fight as he moves onto 31 points. Three rounds of the 2WD Cup remain to be contested, and Villa, after missing this event, has confirmed his entry for the next two rounds, the Rally Principe de Asturias and the Rallye Sanremo. Neither driver will have to drop any scores this year.

In the 2WD Cup manufacturers' championship Abarth (the Fiat Punto S1600 has been rebranded under the Scorpion brand for the championship) chipped five points off Peugeot's comfortable lead and the Scorpion now has 46 points compared to the 69 points of the French carmaker which has been able to count on strength of numbers all year. However with three rounds remaining Abarth still has a mathematical shot at the title as Peugeot has scored in the maximum number of seven rounds allowed and will now have to drop scores if it is to collect anymore points, while the Italian firm still has two more scoring opportunities available before it too has to select its best results.

ItaliaspeedTV: Shakedown Stage / Scrutineering / Ceremonial Start / Superspecial Stage (SS1) / Star Rally / Leg One (I) / Leg One (II) / Leg Two