Stroker: I am not in charge of motorcycle inspection, but maybe I can help with some of this.
The picture you mentioned in your post (Bike 556) is, according to the lettering on the bike,
entered in the Altered class, 1000cc.
What is it about the bike that you feel makes the bike "illegal" for the altered class?
Scott, here's a photo of the bike that Mr Stroker speaks of. The ECTA website lists this picture as being made in Sept 2003. 1 month after the modified runs mentioned. I'm sure that you're familiar with this bike and that the picture does show it in it's typical Maxton attire, and the fact that it would be quite difficult to transform it into a modified legal vehicle.
We missed being able to contest the vehicle's modified run due to the fact that we were not aware that it had changed class to modified. I'm sure that the run logs for this bike on that day were previously made in an altered class. Run logs should be still available, but regardless of that, this is the only time that this bike has run in this configuration in modified class to my knowledge.
What makes the series of runs for this bike even more radical during the last hours at Maxton on that day is this....I witnessed the bike at the starting line on the first of the modified runs, it had issues and I asked what the issues were, the bike had lurched forward at the line when put into forward gear, and I was told that one of the axle adjusters had broken. This was confirmed by an ECTA official. Prior to this first modified run, it had been announced over the common radio channel that the track was now closed to anyone that wasn't already in the staging lanes, however, this bike was allowed to make yet another run in modified class, after the course was closed to all other racers. The second pass was made (after the course was closed) and after the bike came through the pit area at a higher speed than normally allowed. The rider was made aware of the excessive pit area speed, and his response was that the bike was stuck in 3rd gear. So now we have an illegal bike, running in modified class, with an apparent broken axle adjuster, and apparently stuck in 3rd gear. If that weren't enough, the owner of the bike happens to be a tech inspector, and the rider of the bike is a tech inspector and a member of the ECTA motorcycle committee.
Several comments were made that day as the happenings happened, but protests were not made by anyone. My team had had "issues" with the parties involved before, so we didn't want to add fuel to the fire by launching a formal protest, until we found out later that the runs were made in modified class, and on our previously held records. (see "issues" above) Of course, by then, according to the ECTA rules, it was too late.
We learned a hard lesson at that meet, and abided by the ECTA rules of protest after pleading our case.
Regardless of the examples that are set before us by some that are trusted to inforce the rules, our team and many, many others, choose to race with integrity.
One of our bikes was pictured here, as an example of a class illegal bike. This is difficult to understand when the poster was one of the technical inspectors of the bike in question, as were several others. We were never told by anyone in tech inspection or impound that this particular bike was not legal for any class that it ran in....and we ran that bike for 2 years at Maxton.