Oct 9, 2007

Norick Abe: 1975-2007



It's taken me a day to come to grips with it, which is why this obituary comes so late. Norifumi Abe, popularly known as Norick Abe, burst into the 500cc class with a wild, wild ride as a wildcard at the 1994 Japanese GP. He left quite an impression, and I'm not just talking about this hair streaming from his helmet either. Soon after, he became a premier class regular. Among his fans is Valentino Rossi, who obviously loved Abe enough to go through the RossiFumi phase.

The newsreports say Norick was riding a 500cc scooter near the city of Kawasaki in Japan, when a truck pulled an illegal U-turn in front of Norick. Norick collided with the truck and fought for his life for two and a half hours at the hospital. I'd like to offer my condolences to his friends and family.

But tell me something, if a GP-class rider like Norick was no match for a truck turning illegally in a country with traffic as disciplined as Japan... when his phenomenal skills was negated by something as daily-event here as a truck behaving badly... what chance do people like you and me have?


Be very careful out there guys.

I went to YouTube to look for some vids, but there are too many to post. So click this link to see various Abe videos, including 10-minute clips of his wild ride at the 1994 Japanese GP. Image courtesy: Yamaha Racing

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just now witnessed a horrible horrible accident near my office. A pulsar guy was run-over my a tempo, the pulsar guy took a illegal right turn towards Venkatnarayana road (big road in chennai)from burkit road and he came under the wheels of the tempo. He WAS wearing a helmet but helmet does not help a person for his stupidity.

Almost similar, but here it was the bikers mistake. The bike was a new Pulsar 220 DTS-Fi & the guy was just in his early 20's. Very very angry and upset to have lost a promising young man today to a little bit of adrenaline rush from him.

Anand.S

rearset said...

Very sorry to hear that Anand. You take care...