Aaron Tony Slight (born 19 January 1966) is a New Zealand former professional motorcycle road racer. He competed in the Superbike World Championships from to , finishing second in the championship twice and third four times. He later competed in car racing and was a television presenter for AA Torque, a motoring show on New Zealand television.

Motorcycle racing career Born in Masterton, New Zealand, Slight was Australian Superbike Champion in 1991, before spending most of the 1990s racing in the Superbike World Championship, amassing 87 podiums, 13 wins and eight poles. For many years he was the only rider to win the Suzuka 8 Hours race for three consecutive years, having done so in 1993–1995. This feat has been repeated only recently by multiple Japanese Superbike Champion Katsuyuki Nakasuga in 2015–2018. Although Nakasuga was only declared a winner in 2018 due to being part of the three rider team (with Sam Lowes and Michael Van Der Mark) even though he did not ride in the race due to an injury. Officially, Nakasuga is a four-time-in-a-row winner but in reality he has only matched Slight's three time record respectively.

Slight won his first WSB race during the 1992 season on a Kawasaki for Team Moving Kawasaki. On a factory Castrol Honda he was third overall in 1994 and 1995, taking his first Honda win at Albacete. The only real low note was Laguna Seca in 1995, where a poorly handling Honda and many local wildcards left him 18th on the grid. He was runner-up to Troy Corser in 1996, and third again in 1997 as teammate John Kocinski won the title.

In 1998, Slight was second to Carl Fogarty by 5.5 points (half points having been awarded in the shortened Laguna Seca race 1), only missing the title due to mishaps such as a last-lap engine failure at Monza, a last-lap incident with back-marker Jean-Marc Deletang at Philip Island, and missing race 2 at Laguna Seca due to a startline pileup on the aborted attempt to restart the first race. He did however take his first career double victory, at Misano.

Slight did not win a race in 1999; he crossed the line first in race 1 at Hockenheimring after passing Carl Fogarty on the last lap, but a red flag had been shown due to an incident elsewhere on the track, so the results were taken a lap back. Ironically, as Fogarty had already clinched the title, he did not need to win the race. Slight missed the start of the season in 2000 and then made his final appearance in the opening round of the 2001 American Superbike Championship at Daytona Speedway.

Car racing career Slight raced in the British Touring Car Championship, ASCAR Racing Series and the British GT Championship.www.mcnews.com.au

Personal life In the 2000 Queen's Birthday Honours, Slight was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to motor sport.

Racing record

Superbike World Championship

Races by year (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Pts R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 1988 Bimota GBR GBR HUN HUN GER GER AUT AUT JPN JPN FRA FRA POR POR AUS AUS NZL NZL 42nd 5.5 1989 Kawasaki GBR GBR HUN HUN CAN CAN USA USA AUT AUT FRA FRA JPN JPN GER GER ITA ITA AUS AUS NZL NZL 14th 54 1990 Kawasaki SPA SPA GBR GBR HUN HUN GER GER CAN CAN USA USA AUT AUT JPN JPN FRA FRA ITA ITA MAL MAL AUS AUS NZL NZL 19th 32 1991 Kawasaki GBR GBR SPA SPA CAN CAN USA USA AUT AUT SMR SMR SWE SWE JPN JPN MAL MAL GER GER FRA FRA ITA ITA AUS AUS 13th 65 1992 Kawasaki SPA SPA GBR GBR GER GER BEL BEL SPA SPA AUT AUT ITA ITA MAL MAL JPN JPN NED NED ITA ITA AUS AUS NZL NZL 6th 249 1993 Kawasaki IRL IRL GER GER SPA SPA SMR SMR AUT AUT CZE CZE SWE SWE MAL MAL JPN JPN NED NED ITA ITA GBR GBR POR POR 3rd 316 1994 Honda GBR GBR GER GER ITA ITA SPA SPA AUT AUT INA INA JPN JPN NED NED SMR SMR EUR EUR AUS AUS 3rd 277 1995 Honda GER GER SMR SMR GBR GBR ITA ITA SPA SPA AUT AUT USA USA EUR EUR JPN JPN NED NED INA INA AUS AUS 3rd 323 1996 Honda SMR SMR GBR GBR GER GER ITA ITA CZE CZE USA USA EUR EUR INA INA JPN JPN NED NED SPA SPA AUS AUS 2nd 347 1997 Honda AUS AUS SMR SMR GBR GBR GER GER ITA ITA USA USA EUR EUR AUT AUT NED NED SPA SPA JPN JPN INA INA 3rd 343 1998 Honda AUS AUS GBR GBR ITA ITA SPA SPA GER GER SMR SMR RSA RSA USA USA EUR EUR AUT AUT NED NED JPN JPN 2nd 347 1999 Honda RSA RSA AUS AUS GBR GBR SPA SPA ITA ITA GER GER SMR SMR USA USA EUR EUR AUT AUT NED NED GER GER JPN JPN 4th 323 2000 Honda RSA RSA AUS AUS JPN JPN GBR GBR ITA ITA GER GER SMR SMR SPA SPA USA USA GBR GBR NED NED GER GER GBR GBR 8th 153

Suzuka 8 Hours results Year Team Co-Rider Bike Pos 1993 Itoham Racing Kawasaki Aaron Slight Scott Russell Kawasaki Ninja ZX-7R 1st 1994 Team HRC Aaron Slight Doug Polen Honda RVF750 RC45 1st 1995 Team HRC Aaron Slight Tadayuki Okada Honda RVF750 RC45 1st

Complete British Touring Car Championship results (key) Races in bold indicate pole position (1 point awarded all races) Races in italics indicate fastest lap (1 point awarded all races) * signifies that driver lead feature race for at least one lap (1 point awarded)

Year Team Car Class 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Pos Pts 2001 Peugeot Sport UK Peugeot 406 Coupé BRH1 BRH2 THR1 THR2 OUL1 OUL2 SIL1 SIL2 MON1 MON2 DON1ovr:7cls:7 DON2Ret* KNO1 KNO2 SNE1 SNE2 CRO1 CRO2 OUL1 OUL2 SIL1 SIL2 DON1 DON2 BRH1 BRH2 NC† 0† 2002 Barwell Motorsport Vauxhall Astra Coupé BRH1ovr:9cls:6 BRH2ovr:12cls:9 OUL1ovr:6cls:6 OUL2ovr:8cls:8 THR1ovr:7cls:7 THR2DNS SIL1ovr:10cls:10 SIL2Ret MON1DNS MON2ovr:8cls:8 CRO1ovr:7cls:7 CRO2ovr:10cls:10 SNE1ovr:12cls:12 SNE2ovr:9cls:9 KNO1Ret KNO2ovr:13cls:12 BRH1Ret BRH2ovr:9cls:9 DON1Ret DON2Ret 13th 32 † Not eligible for points

Complete Porsche Supercup results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Team Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 DC Points 2003 Porsche AG Porsche 996 GT3 ITA1 ESP AUT MON GER1 FRA GBR GER2 HUN ITA2 USA1 USA2 NC‡ 0‡ ‡ – Guest driver – Not eligible for points.

References

External links

Official site Article on his brain condition