Grapevine: Charity auction a success

A total of 217,000 pounds was raised beating last year's total by over 40,000 pounds, after the gates to the paddock were opened to the public and a special auction took place with items from all MotoGP riders.

Autosport.com's Toby Moody along with his Eurosport colleagues Julian Ryder and Randy Mamola helped the auction raise 90,150 pounds in just four hours.

Nicky Hayden was joined on stage by England football star Michael Owen, Hayden throwing in an improptu lot, selling his own limited edition watch off his wrist.

Valentino Rossi items were in strong demand, with the biggest total coming from a set of five prints charting his career which raised 6,000 pounds. In total Rossi's items made 19,050 pounds.

The auction's biggest sellers were two places to ride with Charley Boorman and Ewan McGregor on the last two days of their Long Way Down adventure in Cape Town, which sold for an astonishing combined total of 22,000 pounds.

Other items included the signed fuel tank cover from the bike Hayden rode to his World Championship victory at Valencia last November, while two people joined the works Suzuki team for the whole weekend for 3,800 pounds.

Live music was provided by World Superbike star James Toseland and his band Crash, with guest star Mark Richardson, drummer with UK rock band Feeder, taking to the stage with the band for a special slot.

Speaking on stage at the end of the auction, Riders for Health co-founder and CEO Andrea Coleman thanked everyone involved in the day saying: "We couldn't do this without you. We are all in the family of motorcycling and we are all in this together, so thank you so much.

"We would like to thank everyone in the paddock, including the teams and riders, Dorna and IRTA, who all helped to make Day of Champions 2007 the most successful ever. Riders for Health is already helping almost 11 million people across Africa and, thanks to our supporters in MotoGP, we will be able to reach even more this year."