I have a further thought on this, and I think it's extremely relevant.
For the purpose of this posting, FORGET the nos 21 to 80(?). Let's just concentrate on the first 20, who as we know have priority numbers given to them.
I wonder, have we got the final practice qualifying times for 2014 to see what order they WOULD have started had they not had their priority numbers?
For instance M.D. (No6?) was he the fastest? And so on. Because, if it was so important to have this numbering sequence, why aren't the fastest riders, (i.e. those most likely to be in a winning position), placed in the order of qualifying, just as we were for the Senior a few years ago?
It seems a ridiculous dichotomy to place the higher (slower) numbers in order of qualifying, and turn a blind eye to the faster riders who perhaps become badly baulked by riders travelling only marginally slower than themselves.
And finally in my previous post about No.78 Bob McIntyre, what does Eddy mean by saying "it's not as though he had to pass 77 riders"? Does that not answer the argument perfectly? And by the way John Surtees finished 2nd (no. 64) and Bob Brown 3rd (35?).
The previous year (1956) John Surtees won as Number 81, and in 1955 Geoff Duke won at No.50.
The original reason for changing the order to give known names the early numbers was for fairness, not safety.
I think Malcolm would like us to finish this thread, so maybe someone could start a new thread regarding the correlation between qualifying and actual starting numbers. I think it is important to know.