David, thanks for your frank reply. Don't get me wrong, I wasnt criticising Steve - I have great regard for the guy as it happens and well remember both his vintage exploits and the unique GTR. But that's not to say I agree with his POV on racing, and my point is really that the TT and the Manx are essentially different events, at different levels. With different licence requirements and different approaches to entry fees and prize money.

You'll never enforce the "spirit" of an event but I do believe allowing those with big budgets to buy their way to the front will discourage the amateurs, the "holiday racers" like me who have supported the races over 20 years and no longer want to spend thousands to come over and see the big spenders disappear on the straights with no hope of a Rep when somebody sets a new lap record on a Paton, or MV, or works Honda-4, or whatever other replica exotica they've thrown money at.

But like I said, there's no way to restrict the bikes that I can see, so you're left with excluding the TT pot-hunters and maybe making the awarding of Reps a bit fairer with respect to the megabucks jockeys.

You may feel you can have an exciting race with a dozen big-budget stars on exotic machines, I don't, and I'm not alone in that. Entry fields are already shrinking. Discourage more holiday racers at your peril.