Yasutomo Nagai

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Yasutomo Nagai (October 29, 1965 – September 12, 1995) was a Japanese motorcycle racer from Koshigaya, Saitama. He spent many years racing in Japan’s All-Japan Road Racing Championship and rode for Yamaha’s World Team in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In 1994 he helped Yamaha France win the Bol d’Or, teaming up with Dominique and Christian Sarron. Nagai earned two pole positions in the Superbike World Championship and became the first Japanese rider to take a championship pole outside Japan (in Austria, 1995). He also had four podium finishes, including third place at Sugo, Japan, a few weeks before his death.

Nagai died after a crash at Assen, Netherlands, during a 1995 Superbike World Championship race. He was riding a Yamaha YZF750 when he hit oil on the track from Fabrizio Pirovano’s Ducati 916; his bike landed on him, fracturing his skull. He remained in a coma and died in hospital at age 29. He finished fifth in the 1995 standings despite missing the last two rounds.