This seems to be a bit of a non thing.

Apart from tyco, Honda racing, pbm, gb moto, mar train, Padgetts, they are all non factory supported.

No disrespect to Russ mountford at all but silicone engineering prob have more staff and equipment than some of the factory teams!

What is the criteria for this championship?

Taken from iomtt.com Regulations -

http://www.iomtt.com/~/media/Files/2015/...-14-04.pdf

25. TT PRIVATEERS CUP CHAMPIONSHIP
The TT Privateer Championship allows solo teams and solo riders of independent status to compete with recognition at the highest level in the world’s
premier closed public roads motorcycle race.
Application for entry must be made to the Promoters who will consider each application individually on its own merits using the following criteria:
1. Declaration by the team of no direct manufacturer assistance
2. The known ability of the rider
3. The motorcycle
4. The team operation, resources and structure
5. Other promotable elements e.g. media support
The Promoter will be the final arbiter regarding rider eligibility and acceptance. Points will be awarded to the first fifteen eligible finishers in the
Superbike, Superstock, Supersport and the Senior TT Races using a world championship points scoring system.

Thanks for that Deek.

I get its to give some of the smaller teams some recognition but rules are a tad open for me.

for me a privateer is a rider who rides his own bikes or has borowed/hired them and funds it by himself with the help of friends family and small sponsers
in the past some riders have been listed even though they have been paid by a team in some form or another and were given the bikes to ride by that team
its hard to totaly define privateer but some are more privateer than others

That's the true privateer. There are vey few if any that do it that way at the TT these days. That's why I questioned the TT privateer championship and the rules in the first place?

It's far too open to carry much merit and if you were truly privateer you wouldn't be able to afford to enter it anyway. I could be wrong but isn't there a fee for enterin it?

well i can name 1 rider who was a new comer in 2014 5 starts 5 replicas and the same this year
in 2014 it cost him big time and no big sponsor almost all paid out of his own pocket with a little help from friends and family and by little i mean little % of the overall cost
i wont embarse the lad but his hooked on the tt big time and its all he aims for does just enough to earn his mountain license as thats all he can aford to do
i wouldnt say were friends but we do always talk tt when we bump into each other and hes a great lad always willing to talk even when down in the dumps or working on his bikes

The organisers should cut a deal with one of the teams i.e. Padgets or someone and offer up a works ride as a prize for the privateers winner. That should work both ways someone who proves themselves on a private effort get rewarded with a works ride and the works team (in theory) get the best non works rider out there for the next year.

Interesting thread.......hugely misinformed but interesting.

Ricky

Just because we have a nice set up and take a lot of pride in our appearance doesn't mean we aren't privateers, we get no assistance from any manufacturer and no financial assistance from anywhere but ourselves. As for staff, I have no staff, the whole team is run by people and friends that love the TT and that love doing what they do, we have 3 bikes all of which are old models now and 2 mechanics to work on them for the whole of the 2 weeks, my superstock bike is a 2011 model my superbike (stock zx10 with different swingarm) the same and the triumph is also a 2011 model. We don't have the budget to be buying new bikes every year like the bigger teams which is why the privateers championship was created, to give people like me something to compete for, even other lads in the championship have far superior machinery to us including, ex tyco, Padgetts, PBM bikes so to single us out is a little insulting.

Everyone out there is trying 100% to do their best to get some sort of result regardless of wether they are factory riders or privateers, the gap between big teams to teams like ours is huge, they have chassis men, tyre men, data men etc per bike so that could turn out to be 2 or 3 people to work on 1 bike. Most big teams have at least 3 or 4 bikes so like I said before you thread is hugely misinformed and to me a bit insulting to be honest.

You obviously don't have a background in racing because if you did you'd understand your original post is nonsense.

(14-06-2015, 02:19 AM)Ricky Wrote: This seems to be a bit of a non thing.

Apart from tyco, Honda racing, pbm, gb moto, mar train, Padgetts, they are all non factory supported.

No disrespect to Russ mountford at all but silicone engineering prob have more staff and equipment than some of the factory teams!

What is the criteria for this championship?

As a mate and supporter of Dan Cooper I can assure you he didn't regard winning the privateers cup as a none thing. It was a great reward for the huge effort that him and his buddies/family have put in to putting his second hand bikes together on a very tight budget. He had a big crash at the North West which put a big hole in his budget. He personally worked all hours to get the bike ready, and was justly rewarded.

If Russ has all those staff and that equipment, then I'm sure it is as a result of a colossal personal effort to bring it all together. I only did a few years club racing with my wife as team manager....and that was hard enough!!

Well done to all the privateers. Hugely admirable effort.