Norifumi Abe
Norifumi " Norick " Abe (Japanese阿 部 典 史, Abe Norifumi, born September 7, 1975 in Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan, † October 7, 2007 in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan ) was a Japanese motorcycle racer.
Life and career
Abe launched until 2006 in the Superbike World Championship for Yamaha. His best results in this class were three fourth places (2005 in Brno, in the second race and 2006 in Valencia in two races ). When his great weakness was the qualifying, so he mostly stood at the start on the rear seats. Since 1994, he worked for Yamaha under contract. After the 2006 season, he announced his resignation and returned to Japan to occasionally participate in various events. Abe took care of the way yet to his junior team (Team Norick jun. ) And worked as an official test driver on for Yamaha and was also given at the 2007 Japanese Superbike Championship at the start. He drove there a Yamaha YZF- R1.
He was killed on October 7, 2007 in a traffic accident on the night of the 6th, when he crashed his private motorcycle against a truck that turned illegally on a highway.