Hi fitz,
You are going to hate me for this, But i fully agree with you,
Theres always a first time for everything,,

As has been posted elsewhere, if they knew that it was going to be overwhelmed with entries, Put the extra race on that the Paying Public have been asking for,,

You could have used it for the people that have been supportint the event for years,,
& before Paul Shots that one down, regarding practise, All you have to do is think back a couple of years, 3 solo seissons, & a slidey!!

" Also I truly believe that your face has to fit..."
You have hit the nail on the head, you have to be in the click & always have been when getting entries excepted with the MMCC even going back 20 years or more, & iam sure other people if they had internet access would back me up on that one,,

"Bryan & Julie Downy. Local Sidecar Crew whos face clearly does not fit as they have been turned down for three successive years despite all the racing they do in the UK. The one time they got an enrty they failed to qualify by 30 seconds? Why? because they were learning and lapping the course being mindful of faster riders around them and moving out of the way (slowing their own progress) to let the fast guys through. I know this because we passed them just before Windy Corner and got a BIG thumbs up from me. Please bear in mind this was only practise and in reality they would probably only have been caught on the road by the top 3 or 4. "


To be honest, Whilst not the quickest people out there, but are committed to the event, How are they going to get there TT experience, when as you say they have been refused for the last 3 years!,
The last year i drove the slidey at the TT, Newcomers to the cicuit where a complete pain in the as--,, 4th gear down sulby straight along side wally S, whilst we worked out what the fu! ! these newcomers were doing,,,
So much for tic tac toe , As was brought up at the riders breifing,,
Did the CoC do anything ,when approached by mr W/S , No "they have got to learn the course!!!"

Going back to the Downies, as i seem to got off the point of things,, they cant do that much worse than some other newcomers, give them a reserve ride, for no money,, Done that it the good old days ,
& low & behold got qualifyed, (somehow) but when i got the cheque, it was predated to the day after i offered to ride for nothing!!!


As always a long winded post from myself, but it just pi!! me off when the races that i was such a part off for so long are degenerating into what could be best described a Pr exercise for the main manufactures,, Honda in particular,
Lets shaft the small guys,,Mike Grant must be laughing his soaks off, 20 years after making the suggestion , it seems to be coming true"Lets just have the big teams here"


Hope ive not offended anybody too much ,,but if not i will try harder next time,,

All the best to all the guys & girls that have got a ride,

Regards
mike