Although is wasn't quite the showdown race fans have wanted to see, Valentino Rossi and Troy Bayliss finally raced each other this afternoon at Misano's World Ducati Week in drag-race on Diavel street bikes.

The early elimination stages of the competition saw Ducatisti favourites Valentino Rossi and Troy Bayliss go through to the exclusive final show-down in front of a huge WDW crowd. Bayliss got the best launch from his Diavel and tripped the timing lights at 6.306 seconds to win the magnificent Drag Race by Tudor. Rossi's time of 6.329 put him in second with Nicky Hayden third and Carlos Checa fourth.

Jakub Smrz, Sylvain Guintoli, Niccolò Canepa and Lorenzo Zanetti all took the opportunity for some friendly, but fierce competition on a drag-strip along the Misano start straight/finish straight.