I hate to shatter the illusions of anyone who thinks the Nürburgring is the greatest proving ground for race-tuned machines and their drivers. Across the pond, on the side of a 14,110ft mountain at the eastern fringes of the Rockies, is a race course that makes its German cousin look tame. And, like the Nürburgring, it is open to anyone in pretty much anything with wheels.

For those who have attempted it, the Pikes Peak hillclimb is the ultimate challenge: a 12.42-mile mountain course of dirt and tarmac tracks more suitable for goats than motor vehicles. Set above Colorado Springs, it features 156 hairpin corners, many with sheer drops on one side that plummet 3,000ft from the track to oblivion. It’s steep too: the race starts at 9,390ft and climbs to an ear-popping 14,110ft. Add to that the fact that the weather changes as you climb, meaning drivers can start in 30C and finish in a snowstorm, and it’s easy to see why few who take it on ever forget it. Not for nothing is the challenge to the crest of the mountain called Race to the Clouds.

The race holds a special place in the lore of American racing: it is the country’s second-oldest contest, behind the Indianapolis 500, and has been run 87 times since it began in 1916. Over the years, what started out as a backwoods challenge has grown to become one of the most popular motor sports events in the country: 35,000 spectators line the winding road, live bands play at the base and the Denver Broncos cheer­leaders bid a scantily clad farewell to drivers in a variety of machines from Dodge pick-ups to Mustang muscle cars as they rev away at the start line.

So far, so American. However, for the 2009 race, which was completed last Sunday, a crack team of European drivers and cars decided to take on the mountain — and the Americans — to try not only to win the overall race, but also to set a new record speed.

Enter Marcus Gronholm, two-time world rally champion. The Finn retired from rallying last year and began scouring the globe for dangerous pursuits. “I had heard about Pikes Peak and seen videos of it, and it looked like the kind of thing I should try at least once,” he said before the race weekend. “But only when you come here do you realise how much of a challenge it is. To break the record on my first attempt would be quite a feat, but, hey, I like a challenge.”

Gronholm is the biggest name in international motor sports to take part in the event but he would need all his experience to beat the record set by Nobuhiro Tajima, a Japanese driver, who clocked 10min 01sec in 2007.

Not everyone was convinced that the Pikes Peak virgin from Finland would stay the distance. Parnelli Jones, the 1963 Indianapolis 500 champion and veteran of “the hill”, sounded a warning before the race: “Those rally guys are pretty brave guys, running on the circuits they run. But as far as I’m concerned, it was probably the most dangerous race course I ever drove. I’ll tell you one thing: you have to have a lot of respect for the hill.”

Gronholm could at least take comfort from the fact that two decades ago another flying Finn beat off rivals from America and elsewhere in Europe to claim victory on the hill. It was 1988 when Ari Vatanen, another rally champion, brought his fire-spitting Peugeot (used in his four wins on the Dakar Rally) to Colorado and captured his win on 16mm film. The result was the cult movie Climb Dance, which recently became a YouTube hit.

I was in that Peugeot with Vatanen the year the film was shot. Nothing in a car before and nothing since has ­compared. The sound of gravel ricocheting off the floor beneath my feet. The view from a side window as we slid within a forearm’s length of the sheer drop that is the penultimate corner. And the beauty of watching an auto­motive ballet dancer make a car pirouette on a thin band of gravel two miles above sea level.

One of the biggest problems facing drivers and machines alike is the changing altitude they experience as they race up the hill. As they ascend, the thinning air robs the drivers of their reflexes and saps their muscle strength. It does the same to the cars: the shortage of oxygen means that cars lose 30% of their power between the start and finish of the climb.

To counter this, Gronholm’s Fiesta has been fitted with a 2-litre turbocharged engine tuned to produce a massive 800bhp. It has a large air intake at the front of the bonnet and additional air intakes along the side of the body as well as a huge spoiler at the rear to keep the car grounded as it bursts out of the bends and along the straights.

“The start is on asphalt,” says Gronholm. “It’s immediately into fast, hard corners. In fact the whole course is corners with just two main straights. After the asphalt it’s into gravel and it’s tight. Keeping up speed in the slow corners is important.”

Gronholm’s start was good and he stormed up the mountain. Visible as a cloud of red dust against the skyline, he raced past marker posts well ahead of his expected time. American competitors awaiting their turn chewed nervously as Gronholm threatened to sweep away their personal bests and their national pride. Spectators watched in awe. Then things started to go wrong.

As Gronholm neared the final section of the course, his engine began to misfire. “I knew then I was losing time — and unfortunately on the most dangerous section of Pikes Peak. This bit looks like the moon and the drops are huge. If you are scared you shouldn’t come here but this is the part where having enough power is everything and I was losing power.

“I was 4km from the end when the turbo blew. At that altitude, when normally you lose power because of the thin air, a turbo is everything.”

As Gronholm approached the dirt highway near the summit, the turbo failed completely, and the interior of the car started to fill with smoke. With no turbo, it was game over for any record hopes.

Undaunted, Gronholm pressed on to the summit, left foot braking to keep what power remained on tap. As he crossed the finish line, flames erupted from the wheels.

His time? At 11min 29sec, not bad considering half his engine blew up and his brakes set his tyres on fire, but good enough only for second place in his class. Tajima successfully defended his crown with a time of 10min 15sec.

“It’s a shame,” says Gronholm, disappointed even though it was his first attempt on the hill. “I think I could have managed better. I’ll just have to come back next year.”

No doubt the mountain will be waiting.

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