Norifumi Abe

Norifumi Abe
Abe on the Yamaha YZR500
Nationality	Japanese
Born	(1975-09-07)7 September 1975 Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan
Died	7 October 2007(2007-10-07) (aged 32) Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan
Motorcycle racing career statistics Grand Prix motorcycle racing Active years 1994 – 2004 First race 1994 500cc Japanese Grand Prix Last race 2004 MotoGP Valencia Grand Prix First win 1996 500cc Japanese Grand Prix Last win 2000 500cc Japanese Grand Prix Team(s) Yamaha Championships 0 Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 144 3 17 0 1 1157

Norifumi "Norick" Abe (阿部典史, Abe Norifumi, September 7, 1975 – October 7, 2007), or Norick Abe (ノリック・アベ) was a Japanese professional motorcycle road racer who was previously a 500 cc/MotoGP rider. He died in a road traffic accident in October 2007.

Career

Abe was born to Mitsuo Abe (阿部光雄, Abe Mitsuo), a paved flat track rider, in Tokyo. When he was eleven, Abe began racing minibikes and spent his earlier career competing in motocross. He turned to road racing when he was fifteen and also competed in the United States. In 1992, Abe was the runner up in the 250 cc category for the domestic National A championship. The following year at the All Japan Road Race Championship, Abe won the 500 cc title in the category's final year and became the youngest title winner.

In 1994, while racing in his home championship, Abe had a chance to race at the 1994 Japanese Grand Prix as a "wild card". He shocked the field by challenging for the win until three laps from the finish before falling off. Abe's performance impressed Kenny Roberts's Yamaha team, and was offered two more rides that year which yielded two sixth places and earned him a full-time Grand Prix ride for the 1995 season. This performance also so impressed a 14-year-old Valentino Rossi, that he took on the nickname "Rossifumi" and used it in his early career in deference to such a committed and spectacular racer.

Abe took his first podium finish in 1995, and his first win and fifth overall in the championship a year later. His team in 1997 was run by another former champion, Wayne Rainey, and Abe took regular points finishes over the next two seasons, including four podiums. He joined the d'Antin Antena 3 team in 1999, won at Rio de Janeiro that year, and won again at Suzuka a year later. Abe spent two seasons on less competitive machinery, yet his race results ensured his 100% record of top 10 championship finishes continued.

However, 2002 was the first year of MotoGP regulations, and Abe did not get on well with the four-stroke machinery. As such, when D'Antin switched over to the Yamaha YZR-M1 for 2003, Abe left the team and acted as a factory test rider and occasional wild card racer for Yamaha. He got another chance on the Tech3 Yamaha team for 2004, but was unsuccessful, and was moved to Yamaha's returning Superbike World Championship squad for 2005. Despite having less factory support than Noriyuki Haga and Andrew Pitt, Abe finished in the championship top 10. In 2006 he was less competitive, failing to score a podium.

In 2007, Abe competed in the All Japan Superbike Championship, again on a Yamaha.

Death

On October 7, 2007 while riding a 500 cc Yamaha T-Max scooter in Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Abe was involved in a traffic accident with a truck, which made an illegal U-turn in front of him, at 6:20 p.m. local time. He was pronounced dead two and a half hours later, at 8:50 p.m., at the hospital where he was taken for treatment.

Career statistics

Position	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
Points	25	20	16	13	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1

Grand Prix motorcycle racing

Races by year

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Class	Team	Bike	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Pos	Pts
1994	500cc	Mister Yumcha Blue Fox Honda	NSR500	AUS	MAL	JPN Ret	ESP	AUT	GER	NED	ITA	FRA	GBR							17th	20
		Roberts Marlboro Yamaha	YZR500											CZE 6	USA 6	ARG	EUR
1995	500cc	Roberts Marlboro Yamaha	YZR500	AUS 9	MAL Ret	JPN 9	ESP 4	GER 8	ITA 6	NED 6	FRA Ret	GBR 18	CZE Ret	BRA 3	ARG 6	EUR Ret				9th	81
1996	500cc	Roberts Marlboro Yamaha	YZR500	MAL 8	INA 9	JPN 1	ESP Ret	ITA 11	FRA 4	NED 6	GER 6	GBR 3	AUT 3	CZE 11	IMO 5	CAT 10	BRA 3	AUS Ret		5th	148
1997	500cc	Rainey Marlboro Yamaha	YZR500	MAL 8	JPN 7	ESP 7	ITA 7	AUT 9	FRA 7	NED 10	IMO 7	GER Ret	BRA 5	GBR 9	CZE 5	CAT 12	INA 5	AUS 3		7th	126
1998	500cc	Rainey Marlboro Yamaha	YZR500	JPN 14	MAL Ret	ESP 6	ITA 6	FRA 7	MAD 2	NED Ret	GBR 3	GER Ret	CZE 5	IMO 6	CAT 3	AUS 5	ARG 4			6th	128
1999	500cc	d'Antin Antena 3 Yamaha	YZR500	MAL Ret	JPN 3	ESP 5	FRA 6	ITA Ret	CAT Ret	NED 6	GBR 6	GER 3	CZE Ret	IMO 11	VAL 6	AUS 16	RSA 9	BRA 1	ARG 3	6th	136
2000	500cc	d'Antin Antena 3 Yamaha	YZR500	RSA 7	MAL 17	JPN 1	ESP Ret	FRA 2	ITA 5	CAT 2	NED 10	GBR 6	GER 11	CZE Ret	POR 9	VAL Ret	BRA 4	PAC 5	AUS 6	8th	147
2001	500cc	d'Antin Antena 3 Yamaha	YZR500	JPN 4	RSA 5	ESP 2	FRA 4	ITA 9	CAT 6	NED Ret	GBR Ret	GER 4	CZE 4	POR Ret	VAL 8	PAC 4	AUS 13	MAL 13	BRA 6	7th	137
2002	MotoGP	d'Antin Antena 3 Yamaha	YZR500	JPN 5	RSA 7	ESP 6	FRA 4	ITA 7	CAT 16	NED 9	GBR 4	GER 6	CZE 8	POR 7	BRA 6	PAC 8	MAL 10			6th	129
			YZR-M1															AUS DNS	VAL 10
2003	MotoGP	Fortuna Yamaha	YZR-M1	JPN 11	RSA 8	ESP													VAL 9	16th	31
		Yamaha	YZR-M1				FRA 11	ITA	CAT	NED	GBR	GER 10	CZE	POR	BRA	PAC	MAL	AUS
2004	MotoGP	Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha Tech 3	YZR-M1	RSA 9	ESP 11	FRA Ret	ITA 7	CAT 9	NED 11	BRA 8	GER Ret	GBR Ret	CZE 8	POR 10	JPN Ret	QAT 7	MAL 12	AUS 17	VAL 10	13th	74

External links

• NorickAbe.com - Official site
• Norick Abe at the F1 Network
• Norick Abe's funeral images at SuperbikePlanet.com