A racing suit used by Italian motorcycling star Valentino Rossi is drawing bids at breakneck speed on eBay .

The auction started on Thursday at the nominal price of one euro and had raced to 36,000 euros by mid-afternoon Friday .


The eBay site was almost overwhelmed by the demand and the Internet trading company had to stem the flow, asking would-be bidders to send an e-mail to get permission to bid .

The site of the makers of the suit, Italian firm Dainese, was also flooded by punters using its link to the auction .

So far more than 22,000 bids have come in for the suit, which was worn by Rossi in this year's German MotoGP .

The auction will close next Thursday .

Dainese SpA, a world leader in protective suits for dangerous sports, has been supplying Rossi since the start of his career in 1996 .

The proceeds from the sale will go towards a scholarship to join a research programme into how racing suits can be made safer .

Dainese has been working on the project with Padua University .

Rossi, 26, just won his fifth straight world title in motorcycling's premier class, MotoGP, adding to two earlier titles in junior classes .