| Aaron Slight | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Aaron Slight in 1993 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality |  New Zealander | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 19 January 1966 Masterton, New Zealand | ||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
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.
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.
Slight raced in the British Touring Car Championship, ASCAR Racing Series and the British GT Championship. [6]
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]
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
(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
(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.
Wayne Michael Gardner is an Australian former professional motorcycle and touring car racer. He competed in the Grand Prix motorcycle racing world championships from 1986 to 1992, most prominently as a member of the Honda factory racing team where he became the first Australian to win motorcycling's premier class in 1987. His success on the world motorcycle road racing circuit earned him the nickname The Wollongong Whiz.
Alexandre Barros is a Brazilian former professional motorcycle road racer who is a 7-time 500cc/MotoGP race winner and also a race winner in Superbike World Championship. After a long Grand Prix career, in 2006 he moved to the Superbike World Championship. He returned to MotoGP for 2007, but retired by the end of the season.
Troy Gordon Corser 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 racing. Corser won the Superbike World championship in 1996 and 2005. He held the record for most World Superbike Championship race starts with 377 until 2023 when another Superbike legend Jonathan Rea overtook him.
Noriyuki Haga is a Japanese former professional motorcycle racer. He won 43 world championship superbike races during a 25-year racing career, making him one of the most accomplished competitors never to have won a Superbike World Championship. Haga was the runner-up in the championship three times and, four times finished in third place. His 43 victories ranks fifth all time in the history of the Superbike World Championship behind Jonathan Rea, Carl Fogarty, Alvaro Bautista and Troy Bayliss. Haga ranks fourth behind Troy Corser, Tom Sykes and Jonathan Rea in career World Superbike race starts with 313. He last competed in the 2018 CIV Supersport 600 Championship, aboard a Yamaha YZF-R6.
Chris Vermeulen is a retired Australian motorcycle racer who last competed in the World Superbike Championship for the works Kawasaki team, perhaps best known for winning the 2007 French Grand Prix in MotoGP.
Carlos Checa Carrera is a Spanish former professional motorcycle road racer and winner of the 2011 Superbike World Championship. After racing in 500 cc and MotoGP for over a decade, mostly on Honda and Yamaha machinery with and without full manufacturer support, he moved to the Superbike World Championship on a Honda for 2008. He has two Grand Prix victories. He has a younger brother, David Checa, also a motorcycle racer who competed in the Superbike World Championship for 2008.
The Coca-Cola Suzuka 8 hours 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.
Carl George Fogarty, 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 of former motorcycle racer George Fogarty. He retired in 2000. In 2011, Fogarty was named a FIM Legend for his motorcycling achievements.
Makoto Tamada (玉田誠) is a former Japanese professional motorcycle racer currently working as a rider instructor in Suzuka Racing School. He is one of the few riders to win races in both MotoGP and Superbike World Championship.
John Kocinski 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.
Anthony Gobert was an Australian professional motorcycle road racer, nicknamed The Go Show. He was a rider of immense promise and talent who had his career derailed by a personal struggle with drug abuse. Winning the final leg of the 1994 season at Phillip Island, he became the youngest ever World Superbike race winner at the age of 19 years old, a record that was broken by 18-year-old Yuichi Takeda at Sugo in 1996.
Doug Polen is an American former professional motorcycle road racer. Polen was a dominant national and world champion road racer in the late 1980s and early 1990s, culminating with his Superbike world championships in 1991 and 1992. He raced successfully in AMA Superbike, Japanese Superbike Championship, Superbike World Championship and endurance racing. Polen was inducted to the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2011.
Graeme Crosby is a former professional Grand Prix motorcycle road racer from New Zealand. A versatile rider, Crosby was equally capable on either four stroke Superbike racers or two stroke Grand Prix racers. He is the only person to have won the Daytona 200, the Imola 200, the Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race, and the Isle of Man TT.
Shinichi Ito born December 7, 1966 in Kakuda, Miyagi, Japan) is a retired professional Grand Prix motorcycle road racer. He has raced extensively in Japanese and International championships. Ito has competed in the All Japan Road Race Championship, and won the Japanese 500 cc Championship, and is also 3 times Japanese Superbike Champion. In the prestigious Suzuka 8 Hour Endurance Race he has qualified on pole 5 times and won the race 3 times. Ito has also raced in Superbike World Championship. His considerable experience on different types of racing machine has earned him a reputation as a premier development rider.
Petrus Dionysius Lambertus Theodorus Kox is a racing driver from the Netherlands.
Wataru Yoshikawa is a Japanese motorcycle rider.
Katsuyuki Nakasuga is a Japanese motorcycle racer. He races a factory Yamaha YZF-R1 in the JSB1000 class of the All Japan Road Race Championship. He has won the Suzuka 8 Hours four times and the JSB1000 championship title ten times.
Michael van der Mark is a motorcycle road racer based in the Netherlands. He competes in the Superbike World Championship with a BMW M1000RR. He was the 2012 European Superstock 600 champion. In 2013 and 2014 he won the Suzuka 8 Hours with Takumi Takahashi and Leon Haslam in the Endurance FIM World Championship on a Honda CBR1000RRW. In 2014 he won the Supersport World Championship with PATA Honda.
Joshua Frederick Hook is an endurance world champion motorcycle racer from Australia. Currently competing in the FIM Endurance World Championship with F.C.C. TSR Honda France. He was the winner of 2011 Australia 125GP Championship on Aprilia.
Alexander Thomas Lowes is an English motorcycle racer. He signed in October 2019 for the Kawasaki Racing Team in Superbike World Championship as team-mate to multi-world champion Jonathan Rea.
