It’s not often that someone’s workplace is also where they would choose to go to have fun, but for data engineer Chloé Lerin, work and fun often take place at the same venue – Anytrack, USA. On weekends, when Lerin isn’t working on a laptop under the awning of the Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki truck, she can usually be found at a racetrack with her own motorcycle looking over her own data or helping AiM customers. During the week, Lerin is back to her full-time job as an engineer at Harley-Davidson. As she says… “my idea of fun actually looks a lot like work. Or maybe it’s that my idea of work looks a lot like fun.”
What was your introduction to the motorcycle world?
Once upon a time in a small French village of Burgundy, my grandpa had decided to buy a Yamaha PW80 for the grandkids. I must have been eight at the time. My uncle had a PW50 for his son, and so I remember riding around with my cousins, in an oval around two large evergreen trees. I only have very select memories from it, but one that stuck was the excitement I felt about riding the bike. My grandparents’ house was five hours aways from ours, and all I could think of was getting out of the car and jumping on the bike when we would finally arrive. Once year, I did exactly that and ran to the bikes as soon as the car stopped. I must have had forgotten how to ride a bike and turn because as soon as I jumped on the bike, I went straight into the bushes. We rode for a few seasons until the bike started to have issues. I only was able to get another bike much later on, at the age of 21. but during all this time I never forgot how much I enjoyed motorcycles. Fun fact: I grew up two hours from Le Mans, and had never been then until last year, when I finally got to see and ride the track.
What led to you working in the MotoAmerica paddock?
I am an engine engineer by trade and have quite a bit of experience with engine-data analysis and outfitting sensors on mechanical systems. So, when I started doing track days, I looked for a way to gather information about my riding. Fast forward to 2020 when I attended my first MotoAmerica weekend at Road Atlanta. Because I am a terrible spectator, I volunteered to help a privateer for the next local-to-me round, Barber. What initially started as just carrying tires and stands around the pits, turned into a small data engineer gig. Using AiM data logger on my own bike helped me shorten my learning curve so much that I was surprised that this racer (and most privateers at the time) was not using any type of data on his bike. I offered to bring my logger and outfit it on his bike for the next round, which was Indianapolis. That turned out to prove itself extremely beneficial, so I flew to Laguna Seca for the season finale, and I was hooked. The next year I was able to do the full season, and thanks to the new remote/hybrid work conditions, I have been able to continue working for teams and helping AiM customers in the paddocks ever since.
What part of the job do you enjoy the most?
Winning! Honestly, I could say problem solving because it’s why teams have “data guys.” I really enjoy the fast pace of racing on and off track. I love being able to correlate rider feedback with the data. Then, from that data, we can make informed decisions on the changes to make for the next session. It’s so satisfying when I see the riders go out and do better as a result. I also really enjoy the cross-disciplinary conversations with the tire engineers, the suspension technicians, and the crew chiefs. When a team communicates well, it makes my job feel really fulfilling. And when we put it on the top step of the box, it makes all the long hours worthwhile.
What part of the job is the most difficult?
Fighting gremlins and witnessing how they impede the riders’ performance. There is not a lot of track time overall during a weekend and, therefore, when issues arise, they can be very challenging to troubleshoot. Thankfully with more advanced electronics come more comprehensive diagnostics, so we, as data engineers, have tools to work with. Short of winning, nothing feels better than finding the root cause of a problem and fixing it.
What do you like to do when you’re not at the racetrack?
When I’m not at the racetrack to work, I love going to the racetrack to play. I have my own bikes that I try to ride when time allows. That also means that I work on bikes, and work on my own ECU management and read my own data. So, my idea of fun actually looks a lot like work. Or maybe it’s that my idea of work looks a lot like fun. Thankfully, I seem to have found a partner with the same crazy mindset to share this “free” time with!
