Aaron Slight

Aaron Tony Slight (born January 19, 1966 in Masterton, New Zealand) is a former professional motorcycle road racer who has recently dabbled in car racing and now fronts the new AA Torque Show.

He 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 poles. He is also the only rider to win the Suzuka 8 Hours race in three successive years, having done so in 1993-1995.

He won his first WSB race in 1992 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 team-mate John Kocinski won the title.

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.

In 1999 team-mate Colin Edwards had the better of him, and their relationship went sour for a while after contact at Donington Park knocked Aaron off. He 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 has been shown due to an incident elsewhere on the track, so the results were taken a lap back. Slight was still arguing with the officials when the podium ceremony took place, so he was not present for this. Ironically, as Fogarty had already clinched the title, he did not need to win the race.

Throughout 1999 he had been feeling ill, but nothing was diagnosed until February 2000, when he collapsed with a stroke caused by a pre-existing but undiagnosed brain problem. He missed the start of the season, and retired from motorcycle racing at the end of the year. He raced in the British Touring Car Championship, Stock Car Speed Association (ASCAR) [http://www.mcnews.com.au/Riders/AaronSlight/2001_Sep_AscarDebut.htm] , and the British GT Championship.

He married Megan in 1995.

References

* [http://www.aaron-slight.com Official site]
* [http://www.superbikeplanet.com/000316a.htm Article on his brain condition]