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  The historical home of American motorsport is at Pikes Peak, above Colorado Springs on the eastern fringes of the Rockies. Photo Gallery

The most revered and feared race track in motorsport history is the old Nurburgring in Germany.

It is 20 kilometres long, with 100 corners pitching and rolling through the Eifel Mountains, and was made famous when Niki Lauda crashed his Ferrari in flame in 1976 — a smash that ended Formula One racing on the historic old course.

The 'Ring is still used for long-distance races and is home to test teams from most of the world's major carmakers, including Nissan which used the track to hone its GT-R supercar.

But not even the Nurburgring can compare to America's most challenging race course. It's not Indianapolis, or the streets of Long Beach, or the Bristol oval which hosts the most popular Nascar race each season. The historical home of American motorsport is at Pikes Peak, above Colorado Springs on the eastern fringes of the Rockies.

It might be a few metres shorter than the Nurburgring but, the hillclimb course for the 87th annual Race to the Clouds has half as many bends again — a total of 156 — with sheer, unprotected cliffs that plummet 1000 metres from the track to oblivion. It climbs from around 2800 metres to just over 4200 metres at an average rate of ascent of a seven per cent gradient.

"I had heard about Pikes Peak and seen the famous film shot on the mountain with Ari Vatanen 20 years ago, but only when you come here do you realise how much of a challenge it is," says double World Rally Champion Marcus Gronholm.

The Flying Finn is retired from rallying, although he guested earlier this year for Subaru, but still keeps sharp by driving a range of go-fast Fords. Gronholm and Swedish Rallycross champion Andrea Eriksson are the two biggest names in global motorsport to attempt the annual hillclimb in two decades. And both are rookies.

Names from the past who have come and conquered the mountain include rally champions Vatanen, Michele Mouton and Walter Rohrl — who each ran in modified versions of World Rally Championship cars — and former Indy 500 winners Al and Bobby Unser.

Since the hill's heyday in the 1980's, when Vatanen starred in 'Climb Dance in his Peugeot, more and more sections of highway to the summit have seen the hard-packed gravel surface rolled over by convention bitumen paving. Within two years the whole road will be asphalt.

For Gronholm, attacking the mountain in its natural state is an opportunity too good to miss. "This is one of those events that will be great to tell people you came and did," he says.

Gronholm and Eriksson's weapon of choice to try and break the back of this mighty mountain is an 850 horsepower, four-wheel drive Fiesta based on the top selling road car in Europe, and one of the Carsguide favourites in Australia.

"The car is way more powerful than a World Rally Car," explains Eriksson during one of the three dawn practice sessions for the race. "The altitude sucks out almost 30 per cent of the power by the summit so it is best to come with plenty. Traction is the other key thing and so we fit huge wings to keep the car fixed to the mountain. It is no place to go off . . ."

In the past, former race winner Rod Millen — a New Zealander who won races and rallies in the USA as well as starring as a stunt driver in many films and commercials — built a Toyota with an engine so radical it could not be started at sea level. It has to be high in the mountains, where the thinner air could take the massive turbocharger boost.

Practice in 2009 is a challenge for the two Scandinavians. Eriksson slides wide in the Boulders section near the summit, slamming his Fiesta into a rock. It takes two days to straighten the car in time for Sunday's race.

"I lost power into the corner. And without power you lose some control," he explains. "I tried to stop the car with the handbrake but unfortunately it was one of the few corners with rocks on the outside. The car rolled onto its side, which left it and me with a few sore places."

Meanwhile, Gronholm requests a change to the set-up of his gearbox in search of better acceleration out of tight corners and, after the final practice, the team decides to put a new motor in the car. "The previous one was overheating a bit, so it was sensible to change the engine," says Eriksson, who is also the team leader.

In one year, 1994, the record at Pikes Peak dropped 39 seconds - as fast a rock falling from one of the precipitous cliff edges. But, since 1994, the record has only crept down by three seconds.

Now it sits precariously balanced on the edge of the landmark 10-minute barrier, one which Millen tried and failed to beat several times, and is currently held at 10 minutes 01.41s by Japan's Nobuhiro 'Monster' Tajima. He is back to defend his title in a wicked twin-engined Suzuki prototype and, like the Ford drivers, is try to break into the nine-minute zone.

"To break the 10 minute barrier on our first attempt is quite a challenge," warns Gronholm the night before the race. "But, hey, I like a challenge."

Weather forecasts are trash before they are even broadcast in the Rockies. Some years, the hillclimb has started in 30-degree heat and finished in a minus-10 snowstorm.

Wary of predicted afternoon storms, Tajima chooses to run in the Unlimited Division, including the Fiestas and a modified Group B Ford RS200 driven by Britain's Mark Rennison, to run before lunch.

Rennison goes first in the modified 1980s rally car but, with no real experience of Pikes Peak, his time of 12 minutes 11 seconds is never going to win. "I'll be back hopefully and give this a good crack," he says.

Next up is Eriksson. With his damaged Fiesta straightened he launches off the line with gusto. The crash earlier in the week means he had not practised the first section of the course at speed, and so, caught out at Engineer's Bend a third of the way up, he loses control and crashes again.

So now all eyes are on Marcus Gronholm. With a new engine in his Fiesta he knows he has to deliver. "The car has been at its best on the first section and was today," says Gronholm. "It handles so well on the sweeping tarmac. But it was clear from the start we had a little misfire. I pushed on regardless and by the mid section I was hopeful of a good time. Not a record time but a reasonable one."

But, as Gronholm nears the final section of dirt highway near the summit, the turbo fails and the interior of the car starts to fill with smoke. Undaunted, he presses on to the peak, left-foot braking to keep what power remains on tap. But the brakes too started to feel the strain and as he crosses the finish line, just over 11 minutes since the start, flames erupt from the wheels. "With no turbo it was game over. It's a shame. I think we could have managed a 10 minute 40 second time," he says.

And so it's Tajima who does the job again, but even he cannot crack the 10-minute barrier. His winning time in the wild, wicked, little Suzuki is 10 minutes 15 seconds. But there is a challenge and both mean are expected back in 2010, perhaps with the advantage of a fully-paved course to the clouds.

"We'll just have to come back next year. This car has huge potential," Gronholm says as he packs for home.