Aaron Slight’s BTCC switch

"People will inevitably think I'm playing at cars, but I know that my future lies on four wheels rather than two," says Slight. "Apart from me already having a race sense, there is precious little carryover between bikes and cars. Drive around Donington in a car, then on a bike, and the racetrack looks like another world.

"Last year's [brain] operation left me thinking, 'I've been lucky in bikes, maybe it's time for a fresh start?' In bikes, aged 35, I was one of the older people out there. In a car, you can go on for another five years or more."

Slight was bitten hard in his touring car debut in the 1997 Tourist Trophy. After an impressive qualifying performance in his Honda Accord, the Kiwi was fired off the track at the top of the Craner Curves by Yvan Muller's Audi and hit the wall hard.

He's under no illusions that racing in the BTCC will be easy, but he's determined to give it his best shot.

"I've been warned about the rough and tumble, and know there will be a few egos on the line, but I won't let it put me off," he says. "Bikes and cars are completely different games. Drive around Donington Park in a car, after you've been around it on a bike, and the racetrack looks like another world - you don't recognise it."

Slight admits he's starting from scratch and putting his bike racing years firmly behind him, but has always hankered for a chance to prove himself on four wheels.

"I went back to a local car driving school in New Zealand six years ago, and that helped me immensely," he says. "At the time I did it just so I could tear around a track in a car, but that's going to be the making of me, I think.

"I've been willing to take a backward step and start again from nowhere. Often, that's too big a sacrifice for some of the big names with egos to make."