The Place

Bob B wrote:Interesting read. Mission creep eh? We certainly agree on that then. Oh to see and hear Granty on that 750 Kwacker triple!

To my mind there are two problematic areas with this whole 'Classic TT' thing:

1) An opportunity was spotted to make ever more money by running a 'populist' themed meeting to encourage visitors to the Island. Nowt wrong with that if it benefits the Island's entire economy but add to the coffers of leeches on the sport of motorcycle racing and increasing competitor costs is not only wrong but also immoral. Additionally it reduced the circuit time and events available to clubman riders for whom the Manx Grand Prix was originally intended, not for nothing was it known as the 'Clubman's TT'. I wonder just how many visitors for this event had actually ever seen the real period machines racing and may actually have known what they were really looking at. Classic racing? No the nearest that it ever came to was silhouette racing from a stand off point of a considerable number of tards! The obvious draw and money maker was persuading some of the top TT riders to get aboard these machines, increasing both their own personal earnings and that of the companies entering them.

2) The eligibility rules as to which machines would be allowed to enter the event seem to have been badly drafted and defined, if at all, and so loose in definition as to permit anything that vaguely resembled a post CRMC definition bike. CRMC rules could have been a good starting point with perhaps an extension of actual cut-off dates if the desire and nouse was present at the inception of the idea for the event to create a truly classic event. Who was exactly responsible for these regs and were any knowledgeable and reliable people consulted in the process, it is not exactly difficult to find and contact such folk. Hopefully, should this farce continue, then perhaps a little more thought, care and knowledge may brought to bear to ensure something nearer the truth of the period. Then again I doubt it due the ever overwhelming presence of the great god Mamon.


Please not that the foregoing are my thoughts and ideas alone and that Steve's Place has no responsibility in their compilation.

petercaughlin wrote:Jo appears to be uneasy about being opposed to change,don`t be, the whole point of being a classic/vintage enthusiast is that we don't want to embrace change that's why we stick with the stuff we knew in our day,we are back again as ever to the age old problem of what is classic/vintage eligible and as ever the moment you try and do anything about it the rich cheats start moaning on about what`s .in their machines and why shouldn't they have it,People will immediately start saying that its impossible and unsafe to use period parts,and of course they are right but its not impossible to build a machine with new parts built to the specification of the period,so classic machinery would not be able to run ,belt drives, programmeable ignition and ECU`s.As far as this Classic TT goes I believe Bob B to be right it will end up like the Bikers Classic at Spa, we used to go to this for years and then the organisers realised that there was more money in having a load of old stars and rich has beens that to have grass roots racers so we were priced out.

Ah well sit back and wait for the brickbats to come flying

petercaughlin wrote:Well done Merv you must be one of those famous people who gets a free entry, last time we did it it was 300 euro`s and reading Classic Racer I worked out that the entry was 320 euros this year