Post Sale Update: The eBay auctions are over, so let’s see what happened! The high score went to Troy Bayliss, whose bike sold for a staggering $139,000!
Per Ducati:
“Dovizioso, Melandri, Lorenzo, Pirro (Race of Champions winner) and Petrucci’s bikes were also in great demand, going for between $46,000 and $72,200 USD, with the bikes ridden by Miller, Davies, Rabat, Forés, Abraham, Rinaldi, and Siméon following in their wake.
The auction generated a total of 7,084 bids from all over the world, with some 1,516 people battling it out to option the thirteen bikes. The uniqueness of the event also aroused huge interest on social media: official Ducati profiles saw more than 7 million views between Instagram and Facebook.”
As part of World Ducati Week 2018 (which should be wrapping up as you read this), Ducati hosted a Race of Champions with current and former Ducati legends battling it out on the Panigale V4 S. 13 bikes were supposed to be used (Chaz Davies unfortunately could not participate due to injury so only 12 were used), and now each one is being auctioned off on eBay for the most passionate of Ducatisti to bid on.
I presume BMW fans are scoffing at how this is similar to the Battle of the Legends series, but it’s still nice to see this type of manufacturer involvement. Each bike was identically prepared with an Akrapovic exhaust and minor race-related upgrades (Rizoma levers, front brake guard, rear sets, etc).
Michele Pirro’s race-winner.
Ducati’s official MotoGP team test rider, Michele Pirro, qualified at pole position and ended up winning the rain-shortened race, beating out (in order of finishing position) Tito Rabat, Xavi Fores, Jack Miller, Marco Melandri, Michael Rinaldi, Andrea Dovizioso, Xavier Simeon, Danilo Petrucci, Jorge Lorenzo, Karel Abraham, and Troy Bayliss.
Bidding ends on Saturday so there’s plenty of time to go, but I’m already fascinated by the values of the bikes compared to each other. I’ll have to come back to this once the auctions are over, but the race winning bike of Michele Pirro is at 37,050 Euros. Other bikes at the higher end of bidding are, as you’d guess, from the factory MotoGP riders: Dovi’s bike is at 33,683 while Lorenzo’s is at 40,150. Meanwhile, Troy Bayliss’ bike? 77,550 Euros ($90,969.87)!
The “2+1” of Troy Bayliss, which collectors apparently think is the most valuable.
Find a master list here, and then click on your individual bike of choice to be taken to the specific eBay Italy listing!