Apologies for drifting off topic a bit but going back to the changes made to the TT in the interests of "safety" which have been bought into by some people - I've just been watching qualifying for the World Touring Cars at Vila Real in Portugal. This is a proper street circuit with flat out 6th gear bends. When questioned about safety, the guy who just set pole said: "This is motor racing. We're not playing with Barbie dolls."

For those of us who don't race, one of the reasons is that we simply don't have the right kind of mentality. We, perhaps unwittingly, look at it from a risk averse perspective and end up doing things that don't need doing & fix things that weren't broke!

For those that weren't there, the greatest EVER race around the TT course was the 2006 Junior MGP where Craig Atkinson beat Derek Brien by the width of a tyre. They raced in pairs, set off at 1 & 2 and raced wheel to wheel (literally) for 4 laps. I can't recall any particular problems associated with that. All I remember is the best race I ever saw. The potential to repeat that is now denied us for no good reason that I can think of.