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source - www.times-age.co.nz
A story to tell
Thursday, 22 November 2001
AARON SLIGHT admits to being a touch nervous about his latest career change – from international racer to author.
But not too nervous, he said yesterday as he was preparing for the official launch at Masterton Town Hall of his autobiography You Don’t Know the Half of It. “You can’t put that much work into something for it to be no good,” he said. Slight, 35, said it had never occurred to him to write about his life but a friend in England kept prompting him, saying his journey from Masterton to the top of the world stage was worth putting down on paper.
“I thought about it and I thought yeah, I do have a good story to tell.”And there was no hesitation in choosing Masterton for the launch.
“I was always from Masterton. In the early days we kept coming back, mainly because we were broke. But even when we weren’t broke, we’d come back at Christmas and other times. “It’s where friends and family are, and I think it’s kept us pretty grounded. We live in Monaco now, and it’s suited us because of my work, but I wouldn’t be comfortable staying there forever. It’s not home.”Slight’s rise from schoolboy moto-cross, through the national road-racing ranks in New Zealand and Australia before breaking into the world superbike championship is now familiar. What fewer people probably realise is the amount of determination he needed to make it to the top level, not only in terms of bouncing back from often horrific injuries but in finding a path through the politics and business aspects of international sport.
“Because I was born in Masterton and not Milan or London, it was always going to be a lot harder,” he said. “There was never going to be the same sort of sponsorship in the early days that young riders in bigger countries could get. And you couldn’t drive home after a race – when you leave home and go to the other side of the world you’re on your own.”
Having effectively called a halt to his two-wheeled career and shifted his ambitions to motor racing, he says he is able to enjoy what he has achieved – “more than I ever would have dreamt of when I was starting”.
And as a teenage tearaway he never imagined one day he’d be back to unveil an autobiography at a function hosted by the mayor. “If I’m doing this sort of thing in Europe and meeting mayors and the like, it’s not a problem, it doesn’t faze me at all. But here – it seems a bit strange.”
AARON SLIGHT returns home to unveil his autobiography at a public launch at Masterton Town Hall on Wednesday night but while happy to share the story of his rise to the top of international motorcycling, he is firmly focused on the yet-to-be-written chapters.
Slight’s British-based manager, Tubbs Wanigasekera, says plans are well advanced for the racer’s career to switch from two wheels to four.
Slight, 35, had one outing in the British Touring Car Championships for the Peugeot team in July but planned other races didn’t eventuate after one of the team’s cars was destroyed in a crash. He also raced at Britain’s new high-speed Rockingham oval in an Ascar event. Ascar is a European version of the American Nascar series.
Mr Wanigasekera said he had negotiated a deal for Slight to be in the BTCC full time next year, not for Peugeot, which has withdrawn from the series, “but with another very prominent manufacturer”. He said an announcement would be made late this month and “I can hint in saying that the car will be a rear-wheel-drive one”.
The hint points to Lexus, the only maker of rear-wheel-drive cars to have so far confirmed its entry in the series.
There was also an agreement to compete in four Ascar races next year, two in Britain and two in Germany, and talks were underway with a “prominent” Australian V8 Supercar team to arrange a track test. “
The plan is for Aaron to do a couple of selected races in Australia next year,” Mr Wanigasekera said. “If we can negotiate terms there he should be doing a test mid-December.”
The launch of Slight’s autobiography, You Don’t Know The Half Of It, is being held at 7pm on Wednesday.
Monday, 26 March 2001
SUPERBIKE racer Aaron Slight has signed to drive a Peugeot in the British Touring Car Championship.
“Driving in the BTCC for the factory Peugeot team is a dream come true,” Slight, 35, told Australian on-line news service mcnews.com.au. “I have always wanted to race cars and I’ve done a few competitive car races in the past. To drive for a global company like Peugeot will be awesome.”
Slight said his two-litre Peugeot 406 Coupe racer “looks great”. “If it goes half as fast as it looks, the Peugeot team are in for a storming year. I am looking forward to testing as I have a lot to learn in a short time this year, but I will be giving it all to succeed and hope to be in a championship winning position in 2002.”
Slight recovered from brain surgery last year only to be dropped from the Castrol Honda world superbike squad at the end of 2000. He raced for an American Ducati team at this month’s Daytona 200 race, failing to finish because of a mechanical failure, but decided against racing in the rest of the American championship.
Slight’s car racing career includes a British touring car drive for Honda in 1997, where he qualified seventh but was punted off in the race. He was leading the 1999 Pukekohe 500 race with 20 minutes to go before suffering mechanical failure, and tested a BTCC super tourer last year. He has also raced a Formula Ford single-seater in New Zealand.
Slight will race in five rounds of the series, with his first outing at Donington Park in July. His London-based manager, Tubbs Wanigasekera, said he also hoped to race in some rounds of the world superbike series.
Monday, 19 February 2001
AARON SLIGHT is likely to line up for America’s premier motorcycle race, the Daytona 200, in Florida next month, but his main focus this year is the British touring car championships.
The Masterton superbike racer was in California last week testing a Ducati for a top American team and told Cycle News magazine he was negotiating a contract to compete in the touring car series. He said it was for a factory team and would see him competing in five or six rounds of the championship with a full season next year.
Slight was called in by the Ohio-based Competition Accessories team to test their Ducati 996 superbike with a view to contesting the American national series, which begins at Daytona. After a successful test session, he indicated he was likely to take the grid at Daytona with further participation in the series dependent on the outcome of the touring car negotiations.
None of the car races he hopes to compete in clash with the American superbike series, but it is unclear whether the car team will want him on hand for testing.
Thursday, 15 February 2001
MASTERTON superbike racer Aaron Slight, dumped from the Honda world championship team at the end of last season, is in California for three days of testing for a top American team.
Slight was called in last weekend by Ohio-based Competition Accessories, one of two teams racing factory-backed Ducatis in the American national superbike championships, after its negotiations with former world champion John Kocinski folded.
Slight, through spokesman Ian Miles, said yesterday the test was a no-strings affair and there were no plans yet to sign to race in America this year. “There’s been no talk of what will happen after the test,” Miles said. “Just speculating, if he likes the bike and if the team likes him, he may discuss something like a one-off ride. “Maybe the team would want to talk about the whole season, but Aaron’s answer to that would depend on the other negotiations he has been having in other arenas.” He would not elaborate on what the “other arenas” are but Slight has made no secret of his desire to keep racing – on two wheels or four.
Although Slight’s international reputation is based on eight gritty but always unlucky seasons in the world series, he is no stranger to racing in the United States. He raced a Kawasaki 250 in one of the support events at Daytona in the early 1990s and returned in 1993 and rode a Kawasaki to fourth place in the 200-mile Daytona 200.
Slight is expected to be home this weekend from his testing at the Willow Springs raceway.
Thursday, 25 January 2001
A motorcycle racing against a plane and a helicopter sounds like an uneven match, except when the motorcycle rider is superbiker Aaron Slight.
Slight, of Masterton, will line up on a Honda CBR 929 Fire Blade against a helicopter and a Pitts Special – a purpose-built aerobatics airplane at Wings over Wairarapa on Sunday.
Grant Langlands from Langlands Motorcycles, who has helped organise the race, said this is the first time he has known of a race like this in New Zealand although it has been done overseas. Mr Langlands said Slight described the race as one of the most “novel” things he is likely to do. He said Slight would reach speeds of at least 270kmh on the three-lap race of the runway.
Co-ordinator of Wings over Wairarapa Kim Perreaux said TV host show-singer Paul Holmes would also attend the event with his bi-plane, a Stearman, an American version of the Tiger Moth.
Ms Perreaux said the finale to Wings over Wairarapa would be the Missing Man Formation. She said this was to honour dead pilots – Mark Hanna and Tom Middleton. Both pilots performed at the Anniversary Airshow in Masterton in 1999.