The brief was create a trophy that not only symbolised the event itself along with Maori and European cultures - but more so represented the life and death of Hamilton race car driver Mark Porter, who died in a horrific accident during the 2006 Bathurst 1000 race.

Tai and his bro' Robert How spent a week in the South Island searching for the 'right' piece of pounamu (greenstone), which they found in Haast. A rare and massive 15kg piece of natural pounamu was sourced, and they brought it back to Raglan before getting to work in Tai's barn-come-studio.

Tai put his love of surfing aside, and spent 4 hard months and around 600 hours creating the Mark Porter Trophy - which some race critics have described as "the best trophy ever!".

"It's been full-on, but having the pounamu here (in Raglan) has brought a real energy to the place. We've had a lot of fun making it too, a lot of laughs!" says Tai.

Tai tried to fuse a combination of contemporary and traditional styles into the design of the trophy. It has the outline of New Zealand carved into it, and a teardrop that represents Mark and his family.

The mangopare (hammerhead shark) represents the hardest thing in Maoridom to kill - "I chose that because they represent strength and the strength of the Holdens and Fords and we know they are going to fight until the bitter end."

Tai sourced a large peice of swamp kauri from Rangiriri in the north of Waikato, which was carved and used to cradle the finished pounamu piece. "I'm so happy with the way it turned out", stokes Tai.

The Mark Porter Trophy was unveiled by Mark's widow Adrienne Porter during the Hamilton 400, and was presented to eventual race winner Garth Tander, who was honoured to be the first to have his name on it.

Tai was pretty emotional at the presentation also - "When it was presented I felt so proud, so proud. I just got goosbumps all over... far out!"

The trophy will be kept in New Zealand and each year the champion's name will be etched on the winner's plaque.

Amazingly, this is Tai's first attempt at working with pounamu.