Comments on: Racing in 2008 and beyond

By: Martin Orgee

Martin Orgee — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:48:22 +0000

A bit more food for thought,looking back through some of my old race programmes(national& inter) the latest one of my 60s era being a 1970 one before my first of many retirements. The following names appeared not on 500 singles
R Difazio Suzuki
S woods Kawasaki
B Walsh Kawasaki
B Sheene Bultaco
M Carney Sheperd Kawasaki
R McCullough QUB
And we still had Two years to go before the cut off date

By: Tony Smith

Tony Smith — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 09:26:33 +0000

Well thats a response!
I dont expect you to turn the clock back or sponsor me, we both know that both are an impossible task for you to acheive.!

Machine elitist organisation, now that takes some quantifying as a statement looking at some of the bikes in IHRO.

Make it easier for me to win races? Sorry you get me on this one, I have no answer.
Happy New Year.

By: Graham Boothby

Graham Boothby — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 22:44:20 +0000

Seasonal felicitations to you as well Tony, and to all IHRO supporters.
This is not a forum, it is a place where people who are interested may make a comment if they wish, hopefully not destructive.
I feel that I have made proposals to improve IHRO for next year.
By fairer do you mean races that Tony Smith can win?? Sorry I cannot turn back the clock, or provide you with sponsorship for next season, you might think I act like god, but my powers are limited as are my finances.
Fuller, I have suggested a championship, which no one has commented on and therefore leads me to think that no one is bothered about a championship as was the case with the ECSC.
I proposed and have implemented a 250cc class in order to fill the grids which is looking good for 2008.
If you mean will I dilute the original IHRO intent in order to just put ‘bums on seats’ on any sort of motorcycle as long as it is old or vaguely approximate to something which may have one time run. Then the answer is a definite NO. There are other organisations which cater for that type of machine. As I have repeatedly said, IHRO is an machine elitist organisation which has survived where others have failed.
You fully understand my position, why keep questioning it, without ever offering anything concrete as a proposal?

By: Tony Smith

Tony Smith — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 14:33:09 +0000

Merry Christmas and happy new year to everybody.
I am having trouble understanding the point of this forum!
Any suggestion that people make is dismissed as unsuitable! What about Mr Boothby making some suggestions to have fuller fairer grids?.

By: Graham Boothby

Graham Boothby — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 11:10:37 +0000

An interesting proposition from Martin.

My personal thoughts are that IHRO is not about ‘cheap’ racing, (if indeed any racing can be said to be cheap) the aim is to have top quality machines on the grid with good riders. IHRO was never intended for machines of the type Martin suggests, if you want to race more modern Japanese two strokes, surely the ICGP is the place?

By: Martin Orgee

Martin Orgee — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 10:12:07 +0000

I have just read all the articles sent in for the first time, on the question over what should be eligible to race and the rising costs of these more powerful potential race winning machines. Why don’t we try and emulate a 70s grid ? let in genuine and replica Kawasaki HIR , Suzuki Twins . I would guess the power output would be much the same as the Patons but cost about a quarter as much to buy build or run.
I will stand well back and wait for the response

By: Denise Costain

Denise Costain — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 10:38:28 +0000

TS: TD’s locked in the garage busy building bikes for 2008, no computer in there. Looking forward to 2008 season.

By: Tony Smith

Tony Smith — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 20:08:31 +0000

Well, Its very quiet on the IHRO forum, what does this mean?
1/ Everybody is happy (so no moaning next year!).
2 / Theres not as many IHRO members as I thought! .
3 / Maybe a lot of members dont have a computers ! .
4 Members think they are wasting there time and nothing will change !.
5 / Nobodys bothered about racing in 2008 and beyond!. Any comments boys and girls?

By: Kim Molnar

Kim Molnar — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 15:07:07 +0000

Tony, me scary! Graham has suggested I lend a bike to Sophie plus Ela Heck some time in 2008 so we can get silly publicity for an all girl team. May have nothing to add to IHRO but will be fun ! may put a few extra bums on seats.

By: Paul Debets

Paul Debets — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 01:15:19 +0000

I like old bike’s (especially Norton’s), and I like all kind of motorcycle racing.
I think that everybody who wants to race has to work for it.
When people started to build the first new G50’s I really liked that and hoped that the same thing would happen with the Manx, and if, I wanted one to race. And if you want something, you have to work for it and make choices. That’s life. It is for everybody his or her own choice how much money they want to spend on racing and you can buy the fastest bike there is, but that’s not making you a winner. If you are a potential winner, you will get a sponsor, and thanks to the sponsors there are a lot of very trick bikes on the tracks and that’s good for the sport.
I think classic racing today is a kind of stock bike racing, very competitive but cheaper because you don’t have to buy new bike’s every 2 years or so, and the bike’s keep their value. I think there have to be good regulations about eligibility but as long I have to run my own bike’s, I will stay by the Manx Norton because that’s the bike I want to have and before I consider a faster engine I have to make faster laps with my 86 bore. (I am my own sponsor, and every sponsor wants to see results before putting more money in it) Racing is all about money, which was in the past and will be in the future. But money doesn’t make you a winner.