Whakatane brothers Mitchell and Damon Rees led from start to finish in winning the 2014 Castrol Honda Six-Hour race at Matata at the weekend.

Mitchell Rees grabbed the holeshot to lead the field into the trees, he then managed to pull a three-minute lead after the first of the 30-minute laps and, after two laps, he handed a five-minute lead to younger brother Damon who maintained the advantage.

With the conditions being hot and dusty, they chose the strategy to go one lap each for the rest of the race.

They slowly edged away, until, at the end of six hours, they had lapped up to third place, with Damon bringing the Tony Rees Motorcycles Honda  CRF450F home in first 13 minutes ahead of second-placed Yamaha WR450 enduro bike riding pair of Chris Power (Auckland) and Darren Capill (Whakatane) and third-placed Jamie Cushion and Taylor Rae (both from Hamilton).

Whakatane riders Myron Rowlands and Silvan Shicker won their R2 Under grade ahead of Jacob Heath and Sam McPherson, with Scott Wilkins and Ryan Brady finishing third in this grade.

Photo by Vandi Photography