Bradley Smith made the𓄧 trip to Misano earlier than usual ahead of this weekend's San Marino MotoGP, in order to ride at Valentino Ros♐si's moto ranch.

Rossi's home in Tavullia is just 20 minuteꦯs from the Misano circuꦍit and the world championship leader regularly invites fellow competitors to join him for some dirt track training.

"I went to Valentino's Ranch. It's ൲the third time I'v♋e been. Great fun. I really enjoy it," said Smith, speaking in the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 hospitality on Thursday afternoon.

"I actually had my own [dirt] bike coming and originally I was suppoꦍsed to ride that on Satur📖day and again on Tuesday, but I couldn't get it here in time. So I rode one of Valentino's spare bikes.

"I love it. To be able to go there and train with everybody. There wᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚas me, Vale, Baldassarri, Pasini, de Angelis, Antonelli, Sanchini - Sanchini was funny - and a couple of other guys as well. It was a good turn💟out. It's so much fun. It's like dreamland for me!"

"The track has left and right corners," added Smith, who has an extensive Motocross background. "It🎀's l💞ike a road race track on dirt. I think that's more transferable [to MotoGP] than just having an oval track.

"Nicky [Hayden] is doing💯 a si🎃milar thing at his house as well. It's exactly what you need, but not all of us have the space to build it! For me it's definitely the way forward - and using bikes with front brakes rather than without, stuff like that - it's all directed towards our [MotoGP] type of racing."

Training at Rossi's ranch traditionally ends with a race, which Smith was happy t🅰o watch fromಞ the sidelines after only getting two hours sleep following flight delays.

"I'd had one hour sleep on the flight, drove here [to Misano], had one more hour of sleep 💝then went straight to the ranch! So you can imagine - after 35 laps I was done! So they did the race. I was watching."

Who won the race?

"I can't tell you!" Smith smiled.

Turning to this weekend, the Misano circuit has been completely resurfaced for 2015, including some changes to the kerbing and corner profiles. A pri꧂vate test was held in July, but Yamaha did not attend.

"I've heard up to a 5% improvement in lap time with the new asphalt," Smith said. "It'll be interesting to see exactly what it is, but from what I've heard Marc [Ma🌳rquez] was ripping around here at the test.

"We're the only manufacturer that hasn't tested so we're on the back foot a little. But I believe that the pace Valentino and Jorge were disp🍒laying last year here we shouldn't be too bad. We'll try and analyse what they w🎉ere doing and go from there."

Sm𓃲ith is sixth inꦬ the world championship standings, with a 32-point lead over the next best satellite rider.