I believe it was being ridden by Phil Sharp at the Bob Mac he won’t be riding it at it Manx if it’s going.

This has cropped up many times and as of yet I have never heard anyone come up with any sort of sensible solution to this perceived problem.

How do you split the bikes? If you use twins/singles then the Weslake’s have to run with the Paton’s and Honda’s. You also have the Gilera that Pat Sefton (think that’s how you spell it) ran it’s never been that quick. If you use CRMC group 1 and 2 that is no better as it will only segregate the Honda’s and the Ducati’s would still be racing against the Honda’s.
As far as I know there will be at least 4 Paton’s at the Manx. I would be surprised if two of them trouble the top 10.
At the end of the day these bikes aren’t always quick, remember Dave Roper on the Benelli it was quick until he fell off, would he have troubled Bill Swallow and Bob Heath over the full race distance personally I don’t think so. Glen English on the 250 Benelli never made it to the race.
Lets not forget that it was only last year that Bob’s Senior lap record was broken after what 8-10 years?

As for separating the riders this is even harder to do. Who is an amateur? For what it’s worth I believe there is currently (from last years entry and this years provisional list from MGP web site) only 1 true professional rider. There are quite a few who don’t pay anything to race, but they are not being paid to race. So where do you draw the line and how do you enforce it?
I agree that a rider being paid to ride at an amateur event is wrong but how do you define being paid? If it’s receiving payment of any kind then that would rule out most of the field!
If you say you can’t do the TT and Manx in the same year then you take out most of the top of the field! Again if you take this back to the Bill and Bob days this would have taken 2 of the front runners out Bob Heath and Bob Jackson but would have still left Bill (for all but 1 year) but it would also have stopped Dennis Trollop riding at the Manx as he was racing a single at the TT as well.

In my opinion if you want to know what is killing of the classic classes it’s the mass of Honda’s. I know this may not be a very popular comment but if you look at the number of entries they have steadily decreased since the Honda’s were let back in. If the Honda’s are as cheap and plentiful as some suggest how come they aren’t filling the gaps? However what is done is done and we can only work with what we have.

I know you asked us to keep it positive cargo and this doesn’t sound it. All I am trying to say is that this is not new and it is almost impossible to something about it and still being fair to everyone.
This is not intended to be having a go at anyone just to highlight the fact that if you stand back and look at it objectively it is almost impossible to find a solution.


One last thing a few years back when Bill and Bob were running away with everything they changed the rep calculations to make it the average of the top three or possibly six to try and make it easier for the rest of the field. This was the first year I won a replica. At first I wasn’t sure I wanted to collect it as I felt I hadn’t won it properly as it was when we worked it out I would have won it anyway.
Obviously I can only speak for myself but if by the rules being changed to not allow certain rides because they are deemed to fast and due to this I managed to get another podium or even a win it would feel somewhat hollow. To be able to call yourself the best you have to beat the best.