Background
Abe was born to Mitsuo Abe (阿部光雄, Abe Mitsuo), an Auto Race rider, in Tokyo.
阿部典史ノリック・アベ
Abe was born to Mitsuo Abe (阿部光雄, Abe Mitsuo), an Auto Race rider, in Tokyo.
He died in a road traffic accident. 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.
In 1994, while racing in his home championship, Abe had a chance to race at the 1994 Japanese Grand Prix as a "wild card". Abe"s performance impressed Kenny Roberts"s Yamaha team, and was offered two more rides that year which yielded two 6th 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 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 Doctorate"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 Technical 3 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 6:20pm local time.
He was pronounced dead two and a half hours later at 8:50pm at the hospital where he was taken for treatment. (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position.
Races in italics indicate fastest lap).