Noriyuki Haga

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Noriyuki Haga (born March 2, 1975), also known as Nori-Chan, Nori, Nitro Nori, and Haga-san, is a Japanese motorcycle racer.

Haga won the Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race in 1996 with American Colin Edwards as his teammate. He was the Japanese Superbike Champion in 1997, coupled with four top-five finishes in World Superbike (WSBK) while filling in for the injured Edwards.

In 1998 Haga was racing WSBK full-time, adopting the number 41 he has used ever since. He won five races (including 3 of the first 4) and finished sixth in the championship, despite lacking knowledge of most circuits on the calendar. He also scored an unexpected third place podium in a 500cc wild-card ride at his home race at Suzuka. Haga finished seventh in the WSBK standings in 1999 on the new R7 Yamaha. As Akira Yanagawa came 5th, he was not the highest placed Japanese rider, something which has never again happened since.

Nori improved his performance to challenge for the title in 2000. Many race fans feel he would have won the 2000 championship had he not been disqualified for testing positive for a banned substance. It was later learned that the banned substance was ephedrine, which occurs naturally in herbs used in the Ma Huang supplement Haga had been taking during the off-season to lose weight. As a result, Haga was stripped of his race win points at the opening round in Kyalami, South Africa, and was forced to sit out a 2-race weekend as punishment.

Haga raced in MotoGP on a WCM Red Bull-sponsored Yamaha 500cc motorcycle in 2001, and on MS Racing's MotoGP Aprilia in 2003. He finished a disappointing fourteenth in the championships both years. 2002 was a winless season in WSBK, but in 2004 he returned to the series with Renegade on a Ducati and was in contention for the championship until the final round. For 2005 Haga has led Yamaha's factory team, finishing third in the championship and becoming the first rider to win a dry weather race having failed to lap fast enough to qualify for 'Superpole'.

In 2006 he is again Yamaha's leading man. After 7 rounds he lies 2nd in the championship to Troy Bayliss, despite not having won a race. At round 7 in Brno he took pole, but finished 3r and 4th in the 2 races, having been passed by Michel Fabrizio on the last lap of both. At round 8 in the UK, he won a race for the first time of the year. At Round 9 at Lausitzring in Germany Nori picked up two second places after battling for the win in both races, the first race was won by his good friend Yukio Kagayama of Alstare Corona Suzuki and the second race was won by Brit James Toseland of Winston Ten Kate Honda who has been his main rival for 2nd place in the year's championship.