I'm in/on the same boat as you Cap'n with that view on just having numbers on the IoM seems to be more important than full length races on the advertised days ..... I honestly have no idea how they think they'll have 2 x 2 days of racing with no delays etc ... that schedule will undoubtedly lead to a very bitty omnishambles of shortened races which I hate to say wouldn't surprise me if that became the norm, I heard this year and not heard before chat of "rider fatigue" a few times(not from riders), I seriously hope we're not heading towards 4 laps max racing but far too often the races are shortened when there's plenty of time available on the day or next day or maybe that's just old fashioned me thinking that the course is no safer on lap4 than it is on lap6.....and there still isn't in my old fashioned opinion simply nowhere near enough practice time especially for riders newer to the circuit, having been out on the course every practice / race session this year in one of the course/marshal response cars it's not light enough much past 8:30/45 particularly if cloudy....apx 2 hrs per day to fit in all the classes isn't enough time......as for their laughable 100k population sophistry - might sound big n clever but where will they all potentially live ?? there isn't enough housing as it is..