Monster Tajima's monster crash

New Zealand hillclimb Race to the Sky returned last weekend for the first time in eight years.

Fittingly, the event was won by Alister McRae driving the late Possum Bourne's heavily modified Subaru Impreza WRC.

Pre-event favourite was eight-time winner Nobuhiro 'Monster' Tajima, but his challenge came to an end after the engine cover tore off his one-off 560kW 'Super 86' at high speed and took the rear wing with it - you can see the resulting crash in the video above.

Thankfully, the Japanese legend was completely unhurt, though was quoted as saying "my car is broken, my heart is broken."

Winner McRae was lucky to be able to race at all after an engine failure in qualifying meant the Possum Bourne Motorsport mechanics were under the pump to replace it in the alloted time.

McRae's winning time of 8min17:06sec was 16 seconds slower than the race record, set by Tajima in 2006.

Second went to Australian Brett Hayward in a custom-built Special with New Zealander Ian Ffitch third on a quad bike.

Event organiser Tony Quinn finished third in his wild custom-built hillclimb car.

Quinn vowed the event would return next year.