The Whakatane family of Kane, Michelle, Ashley and Jordan Waghorn have more than just their surname in common.

They are all dedicated Bay of Plenty motorcycle enthusiasts, they are all very talented off-road bike riders and they are all Yamaha stalwarts.

This year the entire family lined up to tackle the big annual Tarawera 100 dirt bike marathon – something they believe has never been done before by one family.

And although they entered the event together, the irony is that this is an individual sport – rider and bike against the elements – and, despite riding the same four-hour race, they didn’t see much of one another all day.

“One of us is normally injured each time the Tarawera 100 is on … and normally that’s me,” laughed family patriarch, Kane, the 42-year-old finishing 41st overall out of 179 riders and third in the super vets class on his Yamaha YZ450F.

Seventeen-year-old Jordan Waghorn (Yamaha WR450) finished 58th overall, good enough for ninth place in the under-19 category.

Nineteen-year-old Ashley Waghorn (Yamaha YZ125) finished 113th overall while her mum, Michelle (Yamaha YZ250F), was placed 118th overall, the pair earning sixth and seventh place respectively in the women’s class.

For Michelle this was her 14th assault on the Tarawera 100 and she believes this may have been her toughest one yet, “because my motherly instincts came out and I was constantly worrying about the others”.

“In the end, I just tried to concentrate on what I was doing and I knew we’d all get together at the end of the day to share our experiences,” she said.

“It’s great we could all do something like this together, something that we all enjoy so much. I hope we can do it again as a family next year too. This is something that been on my ‘bucket list’ that we’d all do it as a family.

“Jordan was the least prepared to race this year because he had crashed his bike recently, but he did pretty well in the end.”

The numbers on their bikes also told a story – Michelle had a small No.14 placed in the corner of her number plate, “to signify my 14th Tarawera 100”, while Kane was riding with number 31, “because that’s how many years I’ve been riding a Yamaha”.

Jordan’s bike was No.17 because that’s his age and Ashley was No.18 because, according to Jordan, “she thinks she’s one better than me”.

© Words and photo by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com

Meanwhile here’s a video clip showing Tarawera race sponsor and former New Zealand superbike champion Tony Rees crashing at the Tarawera 100, soon after the start… he suffered a badly broken jaw.

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