Seven MotoGP riders sign up for Valentino Rossi's 100km of Champions race

January 12-13 will see the ninth edition of the ‘100km of Champions’ dirt track race held at Valentino Rossi's MotoRanch in Tavullia.

Peter McLaren

09 Jan 2024

Valentino Rossi at the 100km of champions dirt track race

The off-season event sees past and present two-wheeled stars invited to join Rossi and the VR46 Academy riders at their famous training track.

This year’s line-up includes seven current MotoGP riders.

Reigning Moto2 champion Pedro Acosta, GASGAS team-mate Augusto Fernandez and new VR46 signing Fabio di Giannantonio have all been invited back, where they will face Ducati's reigning champion Francesco Bagnaia plus fellow Academy riders Franco Morbidelli, Marco Bezzecchi and Luca Marini.

As well as nine-time world champion Rossi, other former MotoGP riders taking part include Danilo Petrucci, Remy Gardner and Tito Rabat, with WorldSBK race winner Michael Ruben Rinaldi also in attendance.

Last year’s event saw victory for new Repsol Honda rider Marini in the individual 'Americana' elimination contest held on the Friday evening. The 100km was then postponed by a day due to bad weather, before being won by Elia Bartolini and Lorenzo Baldassarri ahead of brothers Rossi and Marini.

Competitors are teamed into pairs for the 100km battle, which begins with riders running to their machines for an endurance-style start. The race is run over 50 laps, with a rider swap every 5 laps.