(30-03-2011, 10:48 PM)Jan Grainger Wrote:

(29-03-2011, 07:00 PM)smokey125 Wrote: Imagine what would happen in you had Ryan, Guy, Olie, MDunlop all go round at 117-120 in practice very possible. Seems like a good way to kill a class before it's got off the ground.

Good point. It doesn't seem fair to me that TT riders are permitted to take part in the Manx. Okay, it may be good for the spectators, etc, but gee, it must be tough on their fellow 'amateur' competitors.

I've not got a problem racing against TT riders they have always been a part of the Classic races at the Manx. You would be surprised by the number of classic Manx riders who have raced the TT in the past. There are also a lot who still do, the evergreen Dave Madson-Mygdal is probably the best example.
In recent years there has been an increase of what I would descibe as hired hands, these are the riders who don't seem to have an interest in the bikes themselves but are rideing for extra track time on the mountain or because other people are encouraging them to do so. The problem is how do you define this or legislate this? In my opinion Olie doesn't fall into this group, the bikes he rides are owned by or at the very least prepared/developed by the family, he rides the bikes at other meetings and rides other classic bikes for people as well, but he is still a top level TT rider. It was much the same with Bob Heath when he was dominating the classic races.
I think we have to accept things are going to stay this way as I'm sure it's these riders that are helping to sell the event to potential sponsors without which the event wont survive. Mind you without the also rans to make up the field how long will it last?
I also think this is exagerated in the big post classic class as the cost of developing a multi 4 stroke is much much higher than a single and also a lot harder to do as a garden shed effort. This makes it a lot more expensive for a club rider to even get a bike close to being competitive.

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(01-04-2011, 01:21 PM)Tomcat Wrote: Was speaking to Dick Linton about this recently. He was concerned less about the new qualifying system (as I guess he would be!) but more about the single rider start that is being introduced, the concern being that it could lead to a worsening of safety standards. A few moments work with a calculator shows why this would be.

90 riders setting off at 10s intervals means the last one would be heading off 15 minutes after the first. Lapping at just over the ton the leader would be coming round in about 22 minutes, and would then be passing the first of the tail-enders around Glen Helen. Likewise more of the faster riders would be catching more of the slower men than if they had been sent away in pairs. More passing equals more risk, as we have seen in the past.

No doubt this change was made with the best of intentions of curing perceived problems but you have to ask, will the cure be worse than the disease?

I completely agree with this point and have no doubt that this is one of the reasons for the new quailfing standard.
Looking at some of the previous posts and taking the idea that 10-15 would be lost off the bottom of the time sheets your only looking at 75-80 starters. A slight change to start numbers to remove any gaps at the back and not only have you got rid of the slowest riders who would get caught first but you have also increased the gap on the road between the first and last riders.