Chloé Lerín

Chloé Lerin is a French-born motorsports engineer who turned her Masters degree in internal combustion engines into a career analyzing race data in the MotoAmerica paddock, where she helps unlock rider potential through sensor diagnostics, setup optimization, and troubleshooting gremlins—all while owning her own race data consulting company.

EARLY YEARS

Growing up on a farm in Brittany, France, Lerin’s path to motorcycle racing was anything but predictable. There were no childhood karting dreams or family racing legacies—just acres of farmland that would later contrast sharply with the high-tech world of data loggers and paddock awnings.

Her mechanical interests didn’t emerge from tinkering with go-karts in the barn. They crystallized through academic rigor. Lerin pursued engineering studies in an apprenticeship format, landing an internship at the John Deere Product Engineering Center and completing her thesis work at the Engine Research Center (ERC), where she studied a gasoline direct-injected V-twin engine for the Wisconsin Small-Engine Consortium. A tour of the ERC with Professor Jaal Ghandhi lit the fuse—she found her calling in engine research, drawing from what would become a lifelong passion for motorsports and hands-on problem-solving.

After earning her Masters degree in internal combustion engines, Lerin built a career that reads like a thermodynamics syllabus come to life. She started as a Noise Vibration and Harshness (NVH) test engineer at John Deere from 2012 to 2015, then moved into roles as a combustion and performance engineer at Cummins in 2018. She became a post-masters research fellow in the Fuels and Engines Research Group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), where she worked on optical spray characterization and combustion in engines ranging from small-displacement gasoline direct-injection to heavy-duty pre-chamber spark ignition engines. Her favorite research topics? Sustainable and highly efficient powertrain and energy storage systems—material science, thermodynamics, controls, mechanical engineering. The whole beautiful, combustible package.

Somewhere along the way, Lerin relocated from Brittany to Milwaukee, trading French countryside for the American Midwest and its proximity to engineering innovation hubs. It was a move driven by career ambition, not racing glory—at least not yet.

OTHER INTERESTS

Lerin’s idea of fun looks suspiciously like work—or maybe her idea of work looks suspiciously like fun. “My idea of fun actually looks a lot like work. Or maybe it’s that my idea of work looks a lot like fun,” she told MotoAmerica, which pretty much sums up her entire vibe.

When she’s not crunching race data during the week as a full-time Powertrain Performance Engineer for Harley-Davidson Motor Company, she’s spending weekends taking her motorcycle to the track or working on it. She’s an avid motorsport enthusiast who began doing track days as a way to combine riding with her engineering expertise—specifically, finding ways to gather riding data using the same kind of sensors and data loggers she’d been outfitting on mechanical systems throughout her career.

She also runs Unicornium Engineering, her own race data analysis consulting company, because apparently one full-time engineering job and a paddock side hustle weren’t quite enough. Her academic passions—thermodynamics, engine engineering, controls, material science—bleed into everything she does, whether it’s diagnosing a gremlin in a Twins Cup bike or prototyping solutions for Harley-Davidson’s King of the Baggers program.

As a STEM advocate, Lerin has participated in tours and outreach activities with students and women in engineering, and she was featured in a Hug Your Engine spotlight on combustion research. She’s the kind of engineer who can talk about optical spray characterization one minute and lap records the next, and make both sound equally compelling.

EARLY SUCCESS

Lerin didn’t start out racing. She started out as a data nerd looking for excuses to spend more time at the track. After doing track days and tinkering on motorcycles with school sensors projects—racing a little bit along the way—she attended her first MotoAmerica weekend at Road Atlanta in 2020. It was supposed to be spectating. Instead, she spotted a Junior Cup/Twins Cup racer who didn’t have a data logger and offered hers.

That gesture at the Indianapolis round, followed by support at the Laguna Seca finale, turned into a full 2021 MotoAmerica season with a Twins Cup team. Suddenly, the engineer who’d spent years studying combustion chambers was under team awnings, correlating rider feedback with telemetry, making setup changes between sessions, and hunting down electrical gremlins with the kind of methodical precision that comes from a Masters degree and thousands of hours analyzing mechanical systems.

By 2023, Lerin had spent three years in the MotoAmerica paddock, working across Junior Cup, Twins Cup, and the King of the Baggers program. She became a data engineer for Team Hammer and a test engineer for Harley-Davidson’s King of the Baggers effort, while also helping AiM customers in the paddocks. Her background in engine research and development—combined with real-world experience outfitting sensors and troubleshooting performance—made her invaluable to teams that needed more than just someone who could read a graph.

“Winning! Honestly, I could say problem solving because it’s why teams have ‘data guys,’” she said in a MotoAmerica interview. “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.”

NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS

• 2012–2015: Worked as NVH test engineer at John Deere, laying groundwork for experimental research and development in internal combustion engines.
• 2018: Served as combustion and performance engineer at Cummins.
• 2020: Attended first MotoAmerica weekend at Road Atlanta; began providing data logger support to Junior Cup/Twins Cup racer at Indianapolis and Laguna Seca.
• 2021: Completed full MotoAmerica season with Twins Cup team, establishing herself as a data engineer in the paddock.
• Ongoing (circa 2023): Data engineer for Team Hammer; test engineer for Harley-Davidson’s King of the Baggers program; owner of Unicornium Engineering race data consulting company.
• Ongoing: Post-masters research fellow at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, researching optical spray characterization and combustion in engines.
• Contributed to pole positions, wins, and lap records in MotoAmerica through data analysis and rider development—unlocking rider potential via informed setup decisions and troubleshooting.

INSPIRATIONS

Professor Jaal Ghandhi’s tour of the Engine Research Center was the spark that ignited Lerin’s passion for engine research. Beyond that single documented influence, her inspirations seem to come less from individual heroes and more from the work itself—the thrill of problem-solving, the satisfaction of correlating rider feedback with cold, hard data, and the fast-paced environment where prototype solutions can go from concept to racetrack in a matter of weeks.

“I love motorcycles first and foremost,” she told Women Riders Now. “But as far as racing goes, I enjoy the fast-paced environment and quick development cycles, specifically in baggers. For example, there are instances where we are met with a challenge, and within a couple weeks we’ve designed a solution, produced a prototype, tested, and implemented the solution on the race bikes.”

REPUTATION

There’s smart, and then there’s SMART. Lerin is the latter—at least according to the MotoAmerica paddock’s general consensus. Her Masters degree in internal combustion engines and years of R&D experience make her a hot commodity for any racing entity that values data-driven decision-making over gut feelings and prayer.

She’s known for her ability to troubleshoot gremlins using advanced electronics diagnostics, correlate rider feedback with telemetry, and make informed setup changes that translate into measurable performance gains. “Figuring things out. Taking data and rider feedback to make the riders and the bike better,” she explained to Women Riders Now. “The best feeling is when we unlock the potential of a rider and see them make strides in their riding and turn that into pole positions, wins, lap records, etc. Fixing problems also feels very gratifying!”

Her reputation extends beyond just crunching numbers. Lerin understands the frustration of limited track time and the pressure to solve issues quickly. “Fighting gremlins and witnessing how they impede the riders’ performance,” she said, describing one of her biggest challenges. “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.”

She was featured as one of five women working behind the scenes in motorcycle racing, highlighting her role in an industry where female engineers—especially at her level of expertise—remain rare. Her ability to translate complex engineering concepts into actionable race strategy has made her a respected figure in the MotoAmerica paddock and beyond.

FUTURE GOALS/PLANS

As of the most recent available information from around 2023, Lerin continues to work full-time as a Powertrain Performance Engineer for Harley-Davidson Motor Company during the week, with her paddock work enabled by remote and hybrid work arrangements. She remains a data engineer for Team Hammer and continues running Unicornium Engineering, her race data analysis consulting company. No specific plans for 2025 or beyond have been publicly documented, but given her track record, it’s safe to assume she’ll be wherever there’s data to analyze, problems to solve, and riders whose potential needs unlocking—probably with a laptop in one hand and a sensor array in the other.

References:

#218 Chloe Lerin (YouTube)
Getting To Know… Chloé Lerin (MotoAmerica)
5 Women Working Behind The Scenes in Motorcycle Racing (Women Riders Now)
Spotlight: Chloé Lerin (Hug Your Engine)
The Brains Behind The Racebikes (YouTube)
Chloé Lerin – For The Love of Data & Two Wheels (Spotify)