The level playing field

I have been watching a few videos which have Norton rotaries racing in the 750 Superbike class. When the Nortons have an opportunity to pass, they seem to be extremely quick. I understand they were excluded from racing. However these days we have bikes which develop over 200 BHP. I have often wondered about the 'level playing field'. In Australia some clubs have different capacity limits when two-strikes and four-strokes race in the same class. Moto 3 seems to be a sensible race class. But otherwise I cannot imagine where road racing is going.

The world can't always be flat.

I remember back in the mid/later 1980's in little Britain and might have been Formula Three which pitted TZ's up against 600 cc four strokes, a dude raced a Moriwaki Kawasaki (The chassis or whole bike might have been put together by G Crosby) 550/4 later out to 600cc on methanol making around 90 HP which was competitive enough to get a national placing.
Where there is a will, cash and riding talent there can be a way.

I believe the guys who run the controlling bodies are too simple-minded to dream up race classes where the bikes involved are fairly equal. When everyone was racing TZ250 and TZ350 Yanahas, the racing was really interesting to watch. In New South Wales, there is a bucket-racing class which pits 125cc two-strokes against 180cc four-strokes. If you could not build a 125cc two-stroke which would win every time, there would be something wrong. I just cannot see where road racing is going. When I was a kid, my bike was always outclassed by two strokes, but these days it seems to be ten times worse. I think if I was starting out now, I would get into the 350 single cylinder class. But there is no way I would build my own bike.

If the guys in the UK get to race Commandos against air-cooled Ducati twins, that might not be all bad. But in Australia, we do not get that opportunity.