Norifumi ‘Norick’ Abe
While he didn’t win any 500cc World titles, Norifumi Abe made a big impression on racing when he made his amazing debut in the class at Suzuka back in 1994. Abe was riding for the Mister Donutbacked Blue Fox team as a wild card rider on his Honda NSR500. Even aged just 19 he was an experienced racer. His father Misuo was an Auto Race rider from Tokyo and by 11, Norifumi was racing minibikes after a few years in motocross. From 15 he was able to compete on full-size road-race machines, and by 1992 he was runner-up in the 250cc category for the domestic National A championship in Japan. Come 1993 and Abe was racing in the All-japan Road Race Championship in the ‘big’ 500cc two-stroke class. He won the title in the category’s final year (it swopped to four-stroke superbike spec machines) and became the youngest title winner. A year on and ‘Norick’, as he was known, was in the All-japan Superbike class, although an NSR was made available for him as a one-off ride at the Suzuka 500cc GP round. Barry Sheene probably put it best, when he commented: “Abe looked like a hand grenade with the pin out, just looking for a place to happen!” Frontrunners Kevin Schwantz and Mick Doohan were passed in corners where (traditionally) you didn’t dare to. Abe’s style was as wild as his long hair: he was strangely hunched over the front, letting the rear of the NSR hang out sideways out of the turns. Eventually, despite holding the lead for many laps, Norifumi crashed out at turn one with just three laps to go. This was enough for Kenny Roberts to give him a place in his Marlboro Yamaha team halfway through 1994 (replacing the injured Daryl Beattie) eventually going full-time in 1995 when Beattie moved to Suzuki. Abe took his first podium finish that year, and his first win (at Suzuka), and fifth overall in the championship a year later in 1996. In 1997, Abe joined Wayne Rainey’s Yamaha team and 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. It’s fair to say that when Motogp went four-stroke in 2002 the twostrokes had their work cut out, and when his team finally got a four-stroke,
Norick didn’t gel with the new YZR-M1 inline-four. Abe would eventually become a Yamaha tester and eventually move to the World Superbike paddock for 2005/06 on a satellite Yamaha R1. He would return home and race for Yamaha in the All-japan Superbike series for 2007. Sadly, Norick was killed whilst riding his scooter in Japan when a truck made an illegal U-turn in front of him. He was just 33 years of age.