Sadlly cheating has been going on in all forms of motorsport since the start- anyone who doesn't recognise that doesn't know the sport and, particularly in classic competition, the line between cheating and interpretation of the rules has become blurred by the need to get a full grid of competitive entrants.

I posted on the old forum at the time of the MGP hijack that DEDs plan to make the classics a 'Goodwood on the rock' would only succeed with the injection of vast sums of cash by both the entrants and the Gov.  Many of the coveted classic bikes weren't very reliable when new and the wear of a few laps of the Mountain would break most of them. 

At the time the attendance at the MGP had been growing steadily by about 7% average a year and I think it cost about £1.5m of gov help.  I think that the attendance figures have continued to rise at the same rate over the last 4 years but I've not seen any published cost for the 'Classic TT' and I doubt we will as it would be unbelievable if it does not cost more to put on - its now a full blown prawn sandwich event.

From the very start they had to have some very flexible rules to get anyone to bring fast bikes forward and the rise of the Bandit engined XR69 and a moving target of regulations made it very difficult to invest in fielding anything competitive, the introduction of the 750s appeared to offer new blood but thoughts of anyone entering shedloads of rc30s were always wishful thinking - I had bought an FZR 1000 hoping the cut off date would have moved on a couple of years but basically they bi-passed them. for some reason the regs for the 750 aren't as flexible and staying within the law appears to be fairly expensive

To fair the classic is now really a parade lap of loose replicas ridden by TT racers and everyone is filling their boots, but the area of dispensations needs to be sorted out - when the classic started the website had an eligibillity section where one could ask the technical stewards whether what you were planning was legal and everyone could see it - some of the problems with the xr69s occured when different people were given different interpretations. I was stood on the grid in 2012? for the start of the junior superbike (250 TZs) only to see 'top people' using radial brake calipers which weren't allowed (they were a year later).


The fuel tank issue is a case in point, both the bikes are made by top teams who have raced there before and the idea that two tanks should be accidentally made too big is most bizzarre and claiming that modifying a tank on a £125k bike would cause the teams hardship is ridiculous - a couple of hours work for a good man £300? or some rough bashing underneath could have solved it - a certain ex Honda and Kawasaki TT winner in the paddock could even do it as he crossed the finish line!! 
While I agree that the current CoC is by far the best in my 37 years memory I feel there were other alternatives open to them if he were convinced they just couldn't fix it.  There is definiitely an advantage in a 3+1 strategy but Gary could have removed that advantage -"ok lads have your illegal tank but you must still stop on lap 2" or alternately they could have fitted the fuel test tickles used in other forms of motorsports  to reduce capacity - they are illegal on the Island but they could have had a dispensation and the team would have no advantage from the illegal tank. I would also love to know how many other bikes had dispensations and for what - its wrong that someone should risk their life trying to catch and pass something that may have illegal components and doen't know that they are at a disadvantage.

The classic is now in a very difficult position, nothing on the horizon will catch a tuned 1200 bandit and nobody is going to spend shedloads on a 750 not to win and I know several entrants who have had enough. What is certain is that the rules for next      year need to be set very shortly and left unchanged for a couple of years and, most importantly, ALL applications for dispensation need to be made public and submitted no later than the TT - if you are stupid enough to do something outside the rulles after that date then you should be out - nobody realistically wakes up in August and decides they need to put a fireblade engine in a goldwing frame and call it an RC181! 

long live the Manx!