Aaron Tony Slight (born 19 January 1966) is a New Zealand former professional

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising ...

road racer. He competed in the

Superbike World Championship Superbike World Championship (also known as WorldSBK, SBK, World Superbike, WSB, or WSBK) is a silhouette-class road racing series based on heavily modified production motorcycles, also known as superbike racing. The championship was founded i ...

s from to , finishing second in the championship twice and third four times. He later competed in

car racing Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organi ...

and now is a

television presenter A television presenter (or television host, some become a "television personality") is a person who introduces, hosts television show, television programs, often serving as a mediator for the program and the audience. Nowadays, it is common for ...

for AA Torque, a motoring show on New Zealand television.

Motorcycle racing career

Born in

Masterton Masterton ( mi, Whakaoriori), a large town in the Greater Wellington Region of New Zealand, operates as the seat of the Masterton District (a territorial authority or local-government district). It is the largest town in the Wairarapa, a r ...

, New Zealand, Slight was Australian

Superbike A sport bike (sports motorcycle, or sports bike) is a motorcycle designed and optimized for speed, acceleration, braking, and cornering on asphalt concrete race tracks and roads. They are mainly designed for performance at the expense of comfor ...

Champion in 1991, before spending most of the 1990s racing in the

, amassing 87 podiums, 13 wins and 8 pole. For many years he was the only rider to win the

Suzuka 8 Hours The is a motorcycle endurance race held at the Suzuka Circuit in Japan each year. The race runs for eight hours consecutively and entrants are composed of two or more riders who alternate during pitstops. History The race began in 1978 as a ...

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. He won his first WSB race during the

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

season on a Kawasaki for Team Moving Kawasaki. On a factory

Castrol Castrol is a British oil company that markets industrial and automotive lubricants, offering a wide range of oil, greases and similar products for most lubrication applications. The name ''Castrol'' was originally just the brand name for com ...

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a product ...

he was third overall in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

and

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

, taking his first

win at

Albacete Albacete (, also , ; ar, ﭐَلبَسِيط, Al-Basīṭ) is a city and municipality in the Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha, and capital of the province of Albacete. Lying in the south-ea ...

. The only real low note was

Laguna Seca Laguna Seca may refer to: * Laguna Seca Formation, a geologic formation in California * Laguna Seca (Mexico), see Convention of London * Laguna Seca (Santa Clara County), a seasonal lake in California * Laguna Seca, Texas, United States * Rancho La ...

in 1995, where a poorly handling Honda and many local wildcards left him 18th on the grid. He was runner-up to

Troy Corser Troy Gordon Corser (born 27 November 1971) is an Australian former professional motorcycle road racer. He competed in the Superbike World Championship from 1992 to 2011 except for the 1997 season when he competed in Grand Prix motorcycle raci ...

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

, and third again in

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

as teammate

John Kocinski John Kocinski (born March 20, 1968 in Little Rock, Arkansas) is a retired American Grand Prix motorcycle road racer whose successes include winning the 1990 250cc World Championship, and the 1997 Superbike World Championship title. In

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

he was second to

Carl Fogarty Carl George Fogarty, (born 1 July 1965), often known as Foggy, is an English former motorcycle racer and one of the most successful World Superbike racers of all time. He also holds the second highest number of race wins at 59. He is the son ...

by 5.5 points (half points having been awarded in the shortened

race 1), only missing the title due to mishaps such as a last-lap engine failure at

Monza Monza (, ; lmo, label=Lombard language, Lombard, Monça, locally ; lat, Modoetia) is a city and ''comune'' on the River Lambro, a tributary of the Po River, Po in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capit ...

, a last-lap incident with back-marker

Jean-Marc Deletang Jean-Marc is a French masculine given name. It may refer to: * Jean-Marc Adjovi-Bocco (born 1963), Beninese former football player * Jean-Marc Ayrault (born 1950), French politician * Jean-Marc Barr (born 1960), French-American film actor and dir ...

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. He did not win a race in 1999; he crossed the line first in race 1 at

Hockenheimring The Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg () is a motor racing circuit situated in the Rhine valley near the town of Hockenheim in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, located on the Bertha Benz Memorial Route. Amongst other motor racing events, it has hos ...

after passing

on the last lap, but a red flag has 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. He 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

He raced in the

British Touring Car Championship The Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship is a touring car racing series held each year in the United Kingdom, currently organised and administered by TOCA TOCA, formally trading as BARC (TOCA) Ltd, is an organiser of motorsport events in ...

ASCAR Racing Series ASCAR (Anglo-American Stock Car Racing), was a stock car racing series that raced at circuits around the United Kingdom and Europe from 2001 until 2008. The series went through many guises during its seven year period and was known as the ASCAR M ...

and the

British GT Championship The British GT Championship is a sports car racing series based predominantly in the United Kingdom. The series was originally created by the British Racing Drivers' Club in 1993 and, for its first two seasons, was known as the National Sports GT ...

Personal life

In the 2000 Queen's Birthday Honours, Slight was appointed a

Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit The New Zealand Order of Merit is an order of merit in the New Zealand royal honours system. It was established by royal warrant on 30 May 1996 by Elizabeth II, Queen of New Zealand, "for those persons who in any field of endeavour, have ren ...

, for services to motor sport.

Racing record

Superbike World Championship

Races by year

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete British Touring Car Championship results

(

) 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) † Not eligible for points

Complete Porsche Supercup results

(

) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) ‡ – Guest driver – Not eligible for points.

References

External links

Official site

{{DEFAULTSORT:Slight, Aaron 1966 births Living people New Zealand motorcycle racers Superbike World Championship riders New Zealand racing drivers British Touring Car Championship drivers New Zealand television presenters Sportspeople from Masterton ASCAR drivers Porsche Carrera Cup GB drivers Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit British GT Championship drivers Peugeot Sport drivers