(08-12-2009, 11:04 PM)Tomcat Wrote: Yep it was the Senior/Junior regs I was referring to, sorry if that wasn't clear.

As you say many classic winners have been current TT boys, before Graham and Derek you had the likes of Bob Heath and Bill Swallow. blistering fast men though not AFAIK TT riders. So as I said banning current TT riders wouldn't necessarily mean no super-fast boys at the front. However I do still maintain it would level the playing field a bit. At present the MMCC are striving to fill the grids by bringing in new classes, and well done them, bit of lateral thinking, only took 10 years. But if your rank and file continue to drift off as they have been it's still ultimately futile.

Ultimately if people believe that current TT riders on TT bikes should be allowed in all classes I'll accept I'm alone in my views. But I reckon if you got McGuinness and Plater entering the Senior on HM Hondas I think there would be a few upset people. That's all I'm saying.

Actually - Bob Heaths TT Record

It looks like the first year that Bob won the Senior Classic, he had also finished ninth in the Junior TT. This year Ryan finished 6th and 7th in the current incarnation of the Junior. What's the difference there? In fact, Bob competed in the TT until 1997, only two years before he stopped coming to the island all together. In his last year, 1997 he finished 11th in the ultra lightweight TT, one position and a few seconds behind a certain Joey Dunlop. (and just in front of some bloke called McGuiness...). The year before he finished fifth, about thirty seconds off the win. Coincidently another rider called Chris McGahan finished tenth in that race and Bud Jackson 13th. Both have been regular TT and Classic riders for years. Shall we ban them as well?

Throughout the years TT riders have peppered the classic field and by taking them away you would only detract further from the spectacle, and the event. I do not accept for a second that if you remove the TT riders that a larger number of classic only riders will come flooding out of the woodwork to replace them. I know from my family as well as anyone that this Island is like a drug, and riders only stop when they truly cannot continue. How many bikes are parked up in pensioners sheds right now because their owners can't swing their leg over them any more?

The owners, like their machines, are getting older and naturally dropping out of the running. Their bikes are then kept as ornaments and how is a younger rider to afford a classic racer to compete the island on? The only younger riders coming into the races are people like my brother and Chris Swallow, whos' families have the bikes already. Then there is cost. I know several 'older' riders who would dearly love to ride their bike around the island again, but can't afford it on their pensions!

I'm lucky enough myself to have backing from a lovely gentleman who can no longer ride himself for next year. If more owners were to do this then the sport would continue to flourish. Until this happens the owners of the best bikes (which have always been present - how far ahead was Heaths machine from the field?) are going to pluck out TT riders, as who else do they put on their bikes?

There are also the spectators to consider - people want to see a good race and despite the depleted field they got that this year. There was a tight battle for the lead between my brother and Ryan and a tight battle for third between Wattie and Mark Parrot (another competitive TT rider on the nicest G50 I've seen for a while). Take away the TT riders this year and the end of the first lap would have given you:

1. Wattie Brown
2. Steve Linsdell + 23 secs (on a home built Enfield - if you count him as an acceptable manx rider now?)
3. Andy Reynolds + 23 secs (On a Paton though, so he'd be banned!)
4. Keith Dixon + 15 secs
5. Ken Davis + 10 secs
6. Fernando Mendes + 4 secs (Obviously he's banned though - he's done 2 british GP's in the past...

Those gaps after one lap doesn't exactly make for an exciting race which is ultimately what the Manx needs to keep the spectators coming!

Sorry again for the long post,

David