Norifumi Abe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Norick Abe on the Yamaha YZR500
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Nationality | Japanese | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born |
Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan |
7 September 1975||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Died | 7 October 2007 Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan |
(aged 32)||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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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 motorcycle road racer who was previously a 500 cc/MotoGP rider. He died in a road traffic accident.
Abe was born to Mitsuo Abe (阿部光雄 Abe Mitsuo?), an Auto Race rider, in Tokyo. When he was eleven, Abe began racing minibikes and spent his earlier career competing in . 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.