I've got involved in this debate a stack of times in a load of different threads now......I still think its nice having the TT riders there, Farquar didn't walk the 500 race this year and the Gary Johnson wont be returning on the MV. If I was a big money sponsor I'd want my bike to win.....and to do that you need a quality rider on it, Oversby and Richardson are easily good enough to compete at the TT and there arent many riders of that calibre in classic racing who want to do the manx, so who exactly is the big money sponsor supposed to give his bike to?

Also have you considered that it would be no eaiser to win a replica if you took away the TT riders, the 500 time would only have been 20 seconds slower and the best TT superstar in the junior classic only came 3rd..... All removing the TT riders would achieve, is making the race a lot less competiitve at the front. For my dad beating the TT riders was part of the attraction, after all, to say you are the best you have to beat the best......winning by miles is boring and I would see it as a hollow victory if it was against a considerably lower calbre of rider.

Also it can be proved mathematically that from 1997 to 2007 it got progressively easier to win a replica as the race times stoppepd getting faster whlist the course and machines continued to improve.....the last 2 years has merely seen the classes return to the state it was in when Bob Heath (a former TT, GP and factory rider) dominated them.

You have to remember that the Manx is the 'premier' event for classics (and now post classics), so the best bikes, riders, teams, mechanics and tuners should be competing in it. If there was a classic race at the TT then fair enough they should be there.....but if that happened the classic races at the manx would die.