(04-04-2011, 10:44 PM)Jan Grainger Wrote: I will clarify this comment to read "Current" TT competitors. I was not referring to those who had ridden the TT in previous years.

100% agree Jan, though I know the view isn't universally shared. In years past the Manx was seen as a feeder to the TT so winners were excluded for future MGP's. In the same way if riders were good enough to ride the TT they had no business running round with the amateurs in the Manx. The one exception was the Classic classes as there was no TT to move up to, and allowing winners to come back was in the interest of a class that enjoyed a lot of continuity of riders.

Fast forward to today and it makes sense to allow former TT riders to return to the modern classes if they no longer wish to ride in the white heat of the TT, given a sensible break so it doesn't simply allow a load of pot-hunters to wreck the Manx in search of a bit of extra practice time. Unfortunately the pot hunters have instead moved into the Classic and Post Classic classes, discouraging a lot who have supported the event over many years out of their own pockets. Why should I use most of my year's holiday and several thousand of my own money to ride round knowing I'm up against current TT riders on machinery I couldn't afford in a decade saving up? No rep and with a bad practice week maybe no qualifying either.

Against this it could reasonably be said if you can't run with the leaders what business do you have being out there. That's fair up to a point and I wouldn't suggest people should be given medals for getting off the boat. But if you cater for the elite and ignore the also-rans that's all you will get, a race where only the few who can get a result will bother to enter. Think you can run a MGP race with 30 entries? Because it won't be long before that's where the Classic events are. Not because the class is fading - it's huge on the mainland, but then on the mainland you don't pay thousands for a couple of rides and you're not generally up against GP riders.

There have been some welcome moves in encouraging the "non elite" classic riders to stay/return, but some of the fundamental problems remain, as I have said. Perhaps it really is too late now and the oldies have decided if the Island doesn't want them they don't want it either, and discouraging the TT riders would only serve to deplete the classes further. I hope not, because at the moment I don't see much reversing the trend of a great class in steady decline.