From my perspective it is important that the various class structures and philosophies are discussed openly. We have supported the HMC concept from day one and we have also supported John and the historic saloons class.

Over recent years we seem to have had the pre 65 class for older race saloons, several Muscle car classes, each with its own rules and philosophy and ourselves with cars effectively in road-going guise.

The gap in the system was for race saloons post '65 and to a degree, there is still a bit of a gap for more recently built race saloons but based on classic components, or replicas of race saloons.

The HMC series hasn't filled a gap as such, but reflects that in some of the other muscle car classes, cars were more race saloons than original. That means that a period correct car would be outclassed, but could still run. So the HMC is a sub division of something that already existed.

We have accepted one or two thinly disguised race saloons (John Dennehey's ex-Halliday Escort, Adrian Dobbe's Vauxhall and even the ex- GT Forsyth MG V8 with wider wheels, no lights and huge wing).

We gave them a platform as there was no other suitable class. The same applies to the Datsun Z's. At the time, there was no other class for cars which we believed added colour and value to the classic race scene. At long last, John has grabbed the potential for those race saloons. The MG V8 has been toned down though it is still marginal - but we were backed by the MGCC in our early days and still support MG anyway! (Wait until you see what we have allowed Grant Kern to run at the Legend's Meeting, whilst the MG V8 gearbox is being rebuilt...)

Steve Melhuish was encouraged to set up a grid for Japanese Classics and although we would never exclude JD, Adrian or the Z drivers, (why should we?) it is their choice as much as ours to allow them to continue.

Dale's comment about committees also has a distinct lack of understanding as to how some committees, instead of isolating self-interest, have shown that it rubber stamps it, or, the committee elects to not listen to its drivers anyway. As a result, the Datsun Z guys have elected to stick with us and drivers of several of our larger cars who went off to try one of the muscle car classes a few years ago, (in parallel) soon abandoned that foray and just carried on with us! Note also the number of BMWs that are now racing with us.

I take that as a support for what we are doing or, that our niche is just that. A bit of a catch all class, but so what? JAFA's post above highlights another issue we are aware of which is why we accepted the Torana 6 and would also seriously consider any others plus Falcons or Commodore 6's where they felt that they were being swamped by the larger capacity V8s.

So we strayed from 100% pre 1977 Euro? Big deal! The series started off 28 years ago as 4 cylinder BMC! No different from my favourite jazz band. It started off in 1954 with a six piece line up, then added, shock, horror, an electric blues guitar. So some purists fans walked out. Then they added another reeds player to the front line. Then, years later, three extra players to the front line. That upset a few more, but guess what, 60 years later they are still around and still led by the same musician who started a co-operative band in 1953, but eventually realised that it was better to have a leader who looked after everything.

The difference is that even as a one man band, I regularly poll all drivers so that all are consulted before major decisions are made, which is what happened with the 2015 Festival. Had we not had the support, then we wouldn't have made the approach. Significantly, I didn't get a single response saying we shouldn't go ahead. A positive 30% poll return is better than average, so even if the other 70% are not keen, they haven't indicated any objections either, so I am not blind to the fact that there may well be some who are not keen, but they obviously don't feel too strongly about it.