| Aaron Slight | |||||||||||||||||||||
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 Aaron Slight in 1993 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality |  New Zealander | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1966-01-19)19 January 1966 (age 59) Masterton, New Zealand | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Aaron Tony SlightMNZM (born 19 January 1966) is a New Zealand former professionalmotorcycleroad racer. He competed in theSuperbike World Championships from1988 to2000, finishing second in the championship twice and third four times.[1][2] He later competed incar racing and was atelevision presenter forAA Torque, a motoring show on New Zealand television.
Born inMasterton, New Zealand, Slight was AustralianSuperbike Champion in 1991, before spending most of the 1990s racing in theSuperbike World Championship, amassing 87 podiums, 13 wins and 8 pole.[1] For many years he was the only rider to win theSuzuka 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 the1992 season on aKawasaki for Team Moving Kawasaki.[1] On a factoryCastrolHonda he was third overall in1994 and1995, taking his firstHonda win atAlbacete.[1] The only real low note wasLaguna Seca in 1995, where a poorly handling Honda and many local wildcards left him 18th on the grid. He was runner-up toTroy Corser in1996, and third again in1997 as teammateJohn Kocinski won the title.[1]
In1998 he was second toCarl Fogarty by 5.5 points (half points having been awarded in the shortenedLaguna Seca race 1), only missing the title due to mishaps such as a last-lap engine failure atMonza, a last-lap incident with back-markerJean-Marc Deletang atPhilip 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, atMisano.[1]
Slight did not win a race in 1999; he crossed the line first in race 1 atHockenheimring after passingCarl 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.
Slight raced in theBritish Touring Car Championship,ASCAR Racing Series and theBritish GT Championship.[6]
In the2000 Queen's Birthday Honours, Slight was appointed aMember of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to motor sport.[7]
(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)
(key) Races inbold indicate pole position (1 point awarded all races) Races initalics 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
(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics 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.
| Preceded by | Australian Superbike Champion 1991 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Suzuka 8 Hours Winner 1993 (withScott Russell) 1994 (withDoug Polen) 1995 (withTadayuki Okada) | Succeeded by |
