Aaron Tony Slight MNZM (born 19 January 1966) is a New Zealand former professional motorcycle road racer. He competed in the Superbike World Championships from 1988 to 2000, finishing second in the championship twice and third four times.[1][2] He later competed in car racing and was a television presenter for AA Torque, a motoring show on New Zealand television.

Aaron Slight
Aaron Slight in 1993
Nationality New Zealander
Born (1966-01-19) 19 January 1966 (age 58)
Masterton, New Zealand
Motorcycle racing career statistics
Superbike World Championship
Active years19882000
Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points
229 13 87 8 26 2834,5

Motorcycle racing career

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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 8 pole.[1] 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.[3][4][5] 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 season on a Kawasaki for Team Moving Kawasaki.[1] On a factory Castrol Honda he was third overall in 1994 and 1995, taking his first Honda win at Albacete.[1] 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.[1]

In 1998 he 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.[1]

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

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Slight raced in the British Touring Car Championship, ASCAR Racing Series and the British GT Championship.[6]

Personal life

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In the 2000 Queen's Birthday Honours, Slight was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to motor sport.[7]

Racing record

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Superbike World Championship

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[1]

Races by year

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(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 Pos. 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
7
JPN
14
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
9
JPN
7
GER GER ITA ITA AUS
5
AUS
6
NZL
2
NZL
Ret
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
8
AUS
7
NZL
Ret
NZL
3
19th 32
1991 Kawasaki GBR GBR SPA SPA CAN CAN USA USA AUT AUT SMR SMR SWE SWE JPN
3
JPN
4
MAL
7
MAL
4
GER GER FRA FRA ITA ITA AUS
Ret
AUS
3
13th 65
1992 Kawasaki SPA
1
SPA
Ret
GBR
5
GBR
6
GER
3
GER
5
BEL
6
BEL
7
SPA
6
SPA
5
AUT
7
AUT
Ret
ITA ITA MAL
4
MAL
3
JPN
6
JPN
4
NED
7
NED
4
ITA ITA AUS
4
AUS
3
NZL
2
NZL
3
6th 249
1993 Kawasaki IRL
5
IRL
6
GER
4
GER
4
SPA
2
SPA
3
SMR
6
SMR
6
AUT
2
AUT
Ret
CZE
3
CZE
Ret
SWE
8
SWE
5
MAL
4
MAL
6
JPN
6
JPN
4
NED
3
NED
6
ITA
1
ITA
2
GBR
3
GBR
2
POR
3
POR
5
3rd 316
1994 Honda GBR
2
GBR
Ret
GER
2
GER
Ret
ITA
3
ITA
4
SPA
2
SPA
2
AUT
4
AUT
4
INA
2
INA
2
JPN
6
JPN
7
NED
3
NED
2
SMR
4
SMR
2
EUR
8
EUR
10
AUS
4
AUS
4
3rd 277
1995 Honda GER
6
GER
3
SMR
16
SMR
13
GBR
4
GBR
3
ITA
2
ITA
3
SPA
1
SPA
3
AUT
4
AUT
4
USA
9
USA
Ret
EUR
9
EUR
8
JPN
2
JPN
4
NED
4
NED
2
INA
3
INA
1
AUS
2
AUS
4
3rd 323
1996 Honda SMR
6
SMR
5
GBR
5
GBR
2
GER
1
GER
2
ITA
2
ITA
2
CZE
3
CZE
2
USA
5
USA
3
EUR
6
EUR
5
INA
3
INA
2
JPN
6
JPN
3
NED
3
NED
5
SPA
9
SPA
6
AUS
Ret
AUS
2
2nd 347
1997 Honda AUS
Ret
AUS
1
SMR
4
SMR
2
GBR
1
GBR
3
GER
1
GER
Ret
ITA
2
ITA
5
USA
7
USA
10
EUR
6
EUR
8
AUT
3
AUT
2
NED
4
NED
4
SPA
2
SPA
3
JPN
6
JPN
4
INA
2
INA
4
3rd 343
1998 Honda AUS
9
AUS
2
GBR
4
GBR
4
ITA
2
ITA
Ret
SPA
4
SPA
2
GER
1
GER
4
SMR
1
SMR
1
RSA
8
RSA
8
USA
8
USA
DNS
EUR
2
EUR
5
AUT
1
AUT
1
NED
4
NED
2
JPN
7
JPN
6
2nd 347
1999 Honda RSA
3
RSA
2
AUS
4
AUS
4
GBR
2
GBR
Ret
SPA
4
SPA
7
ITA
5
ITA
Ret
GER
2
GER
2
SMR
5
SMR
4
USA
9
USA
6
EUR
2
EUR
2
AUT
Ret
AUT
3
NED
3
NED
3
GER
2
GER
3
JPN
16
JPN
13
4th 323
2000 Honda RSA RSA AUS AUS JPN JPN GBR
9
GBR
7
ITA
5
ITA
7
GER
5
GER
5
SMR
Ret
SMR
9
SPA
7
SPA
7
USA
8
USA
9
GBR
7
GBR
Ret
NED
5
NED
4
GER
5
GER
Ret
GBR
13
GBR
8
8th 153

Complete British Touring Car Championship results

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(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 T BRH
1
BRH
2
THR
1
THR
2
OUL
1
OUL
2
SIL
1
SIL
2
MON
1
MON
2
DON
1

7
DON
2

Ret*
KNO
1
KNO
2
SNE
1
SNE
2
CRO
1
CRO
2
OUL
1
OUL
2
SIL
1
SIL
2
DON
1
DON
2
BRH
1
BRH
2
NC† 0†
2002 Barwell Motorsport Vauxhall Astra Coupé T BRH
1

9
BRH
2

12
OUL
1

6
OUL
2

8
THR
1

7
THR
2

DNS
SIL
1

10
SIL
2

Ret
MON
1

DNS
MON
2

8
CRO
1

7
CRO
2

10
SNE
1

12
SNE
2

9
KNO
1

Ret
KNO
2

12
BRH
1

Ret
BRH
2

9
DON
1

Ret
DON
2

Ret
13th 32

† Not eligible for points

Complete Porsche Supercup results

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(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
18
GER2 HUN ITA2 USA1 USA2 NC‡ 0‡

‡ – Guest driver – Not eligible for points.

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Aaron Slight WSBK career statistics". worldsbk.com. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  2. ^ Jessup, Peter. "A Slight change of direction". nzherald.co.nz. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  3. ^ "1993 Suzuka 8 Hours results". motoracing-japan.com. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  4. ^ "1994 Suzuka 8 Hours results". motoracing-japan.com. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  5. ^ "1995 Suzuka 8 Hours results". motoracing-japan.com. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  6. ^ www.mcnews.com.au Archived 27 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ "Queen's Birthday honours list 2000 (including special list for East Timor)". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 5 June 2000. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
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Preceded by Australian Superbike Champion
1991
Succeeded by
Preceded by Suzuka 8 Hours Winner
1993 (with Scott Russell)

1994 (with Doug Polen)

1995 (with Tadayuki Okada)

Succeeded by