Royal Enfield Custom & Motorsports Program Manager Jennifer Lewis [Photo: Kristen Lassen for AMA Pro Racing]

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In “10 Minutes + 2 Laps with…”, we take the same amount of time required to complete a Mission AFT SuperTwins Main Event (give or take a red flag) and use it to catch up with, and hopefully learn a little about, some of the more prominent figures on the Progressive American Flat Track scene. This week, we caught up with Royal Enfield’s Custom & Motorsports Program Manager, Jennifer Lewis, to talk Build.Train.Race.

AmericanFlatTrack.com: The BTR program has been doing its thing for several years now… How long have you been directly involved?

Jennifer Lewis: I started in 2023 – that was my first year. And at that time, I was just with the flat track side of the program as a contractor. After that first season, Royal Enfield hired me full time to take over the program, and I've just been going at it ever since.

AFT: Looking at the big picture, what are you most proud of in terms of what BTR has accomplished to date? And what opportunities do you feel still remain when looking to the future?

JL: I would say I'm most proud of the culture that has been created. In years past, I don't know how close the riders stayed, et cetera. But now, I feel that there's a really strong culture underneath the tent. The riders still want to come and hang out after they graduate.

It's a two-year program. So it goes pretty quick. And with flat track, our weekends are short compared with roadracing where we get a little bit longer weekends. But even in that short time, the bonds that are created within the team are pretty unreal.

They are competitors on the track. They go out there to compete and they're dicing it up just like any other class. But then the second they come back under the tent, they are a family, and a team, and they work really good together.

They come off the track, and they help each other and tell each other where they could pick up more speed or XYZ.

I think a special bond gets created by trusting each other on and off the track. And then we travel together – everybody is sharing hotel rooms, etc.

Once you're BTR, you're always BTR.

And looking forward, I think there's tons of room to grow. I think there's a lot of people who don't know much about the program, and then when they do find out they're like, “Oh, wow, this is pretty awesome.” And not just because it's females racing motorcycles but because of everything that Royal Enfield provides for the racers.

It's a really rare occurrence for a large manufacturer to provide all of these things for racers in general, let alone women, let alone on the amateur scale of things.

BTR racers meet with their fans [Photo: Kristen Lassen for AMA Pro Racing]

AFT: Do you find that culture is something that emerges rather organically? Or do you have to work hard to achieve and maintain it? I can imagine that emotions get pretty heated at times.

JL: Yeah… Honestly, I would say I'm kind of the mother hen, I guess. Before anybody even gets accepted into the program, we go through a pretty tactical application process.

They send in a two-minute video of themselves talking, so we get to know their personality in a small-scale view. And then, of course, they send in a few riding clips, and we get a written resume to kind of get a feeler for what they do on a day-to-day basis.

And then if they're accepted after that, we have a sit down over computer, and that can be pretty long. Some of the riders I talk to for an hour – some even longer. And then some are shorter because I’m like, “Oh yeah, you’re good. You’re solid.”

It varies, but I'm pretty particular on trying to understand personalities. Honestly, that’s sometimes even more important than the racing background. You have to be able to be flexible.

They need to carry an energy of being able to handle themselves in a confrontational situation. Obviously with racing, it can get dicey. And I need people to be level-headed.

I fully want them to be competitive, so that's where it's tricky, and I always supply that comfort from my end of it. Listen, if something happens on the track, and you don't feel like you can come in and calmly get over it, we can go for a walk, and we can calm down and get the words together. And then we can come back and have a conversation as an adult.

Which is hard because competitiveness usually comes with a little bit of a hot-headedness.

Managing that is definitely a priority. Through the process, I really explain that to them that I'm okay if you are a hot head, but you have to be able control yourself and contain it, so we can get you to the point of conversation and not confrontation.

It takes a lot of patience on my end too, but you'd be surprised, I’ve seen more male athletes be more prima donnas than any of our riders.

But yeah, it's a balance. I've been around racing my whole entire life. I think my brother (Moto Anatomy X Royal Enfield Team Manager Johnny Lewis) started racing when he was six, and I'm three years younger than him, so I've been at it for a while.

Being able to see the perspective of racing but also being a female manager to be able to help manage their emotions and feelings and balancing all that, I think it's almost what I've been training for my whole life.

AFT: The “Race” portion of the program takes place on a big stage for everyone to see. “Build” and “Train,” however, are not so obvious to casual observers. Can you explain how those aspects are executed?

JL: Absolutely. Once the applications are through and once we get our roster sorted, we pretty much deep dive right away. So they get an acceptance letter and with that comes a number request so I can get the number plates ordered right away. They also send in color schemes, and then we connect them with a graphic designer and they can design their graphics for what they want to go on their bikes. That happens pretty quickly over the phone and over the computer.

And then we bring all the new riders to Dallas. (Since it is a two-year contract, we try to keep the numbers split half and half between the “Freshmen’ and "Seniors.") When they arrive, the stock bike is sitting on a lift for them.

Royal Enfield and all of our sponsors provide all that’s necessary to bring the bike to life to turn it into a race-ready motorcycle. When the riders walk in, it's pretty much Christmas morning because we have everything displayed and waiting for them.

We have all three of our BTR mechanics (Tyler Abney, Nick Daniels, and Josh Yeager) there to help. Some of the riders are really handy with tools and know how to dig into a bike. And some of them have never held a tool in their life, and that's perfectly okay. Honestly, sometimes it's more fun when they don't have any experience.

They're there for a week and we have a full schedule, day-by-day, piece-by-piece, turning these bikes into race-ready motorcycles. From wiring to cutting the frame, etc. Pretty much every single day has a timeline and a plan, and they build their bikes every day.

It moves pretty fast. They come in every morning and we start by 8:00am and then we end around 7:00pm. So it's full, long working days. They get a lunch break and can relax if they absolutely need to, but they’re so amped up to work on their motorcycles that they just deep dive into it.

They need to learn it because they are responsible for being their own mechanics at the races. Our mechanics are there to help and guide them and oversee things. But the riders are changing their own gearing, and if they want to make adjustments to their suspension, they're the ones that are initiating it.

We also have a full content team that comes and takes head shots, and team shots, and full spreads of all their bikes.

At the end, they get start their bikes up, but the teaser is, they don’t get to ride the bikes until they get to Johnny’s.

So that's usually torture for them. But yeah, it's a busy week, but it's a really, really amazing week. I think that's where a lot of the bonds are created.

Emma Gottsch (No. 5) leads the BTR pack in DAYTONA [Photo: Scott Hunter for AMA Pro Racing]

AFT: So, as you just mentioned, the “Train” portion is executed in collaboration with Johnny and Moto Anatomy…

JL: Yep. We start off DAYTONA Bike Week pretty heavy.

We go to Johnny's, and that's where all of the riders – first year and second year – get to meet each other for the first time.

And not only do they meet each other, we throw them on Johnny's track at his facility for the first time. And that's always really fun to watch too because you see the second-year riders pulling the bikes out because that’s part of the riders’ responsibility at BTR. They load and unload bikes, put up the canopy, and everything like that at the rounds.

Johnny will go into pretty much a full refresh for the returning riders and a full, quote-unquote Slide School training for the new ones. We go over things with the dry erase board, and he's explaining apex and all of those things. All of the riders already know this, but it’s always nice to see it from a professional racer’s perspective.

Johnny does an awesome job of breaking everything down, body form and everything like that, before we even get onto the track.

We typically let the new riders, the first-year riders come get on the track first and we give them a little bit of time to shake down their bikes, and the mechanics will stand there and make sure everything is sounding right and doing everything right, while the returning riders are making any necessary sponsor decal switch-overs or oil changes as their bikes stay with us over the winter.

The new riders go on the track, make sure their bikes are running okay, and then we go back to the drawing board and break everything down, and we hit the track again,

Johnny does an amazing job, really pushing and teaching them. It’s structured and they get a lot of seat time. I'll get them there to Johnny's facility at 7:30 a.m. and they're on track by, 9:30. And then they're on track doing laps, practice starts, everything that you can think of like a normal race.

We pretty much end when the sun goes down, work on the bikes, and have a quick dinner.

And then we leave at 5:00 a.m. to head to Daytona for the week.

After that, Johnny is at every round with his pro team. He comes over and gives some really awesome feedback to the riders. And if they ever need anything throughout the day, they can grab him to chat on top of that.

Julia Heess (No. 13) and Emma Gottsch (No. 5) battle for victory at Ventura Raceway [Photo: Tim Lester for AMA Pro Racing]

AFT: Some of your graduates have used the program as a springboard to professional racing careers. Is it your ultimate goal to successfully identify and launch future pros, or is that more of a happy byproduct of its larger ambitions when it does occur?

JL: Both. And I say both because I don't want people thinking they need to be aiming to go pro to apply for the program.

We've had a lot of riders who have done it purely just out of trying to get out of something that they were stuck in mentally.

Morgan Monroe is a perfect example. She had pro experience, and we typically don't allow pro racers into this program. However, Morgan was a very unique scenario. She crashed a few years back and suffered a traumatic brain injury which resulted in a hemorrhagic stroke that temporarily paralyzed the right side of her body.

They weren't sure she was ever going to walk, let alone be able to be on a motorcycle. She still struggles with certain aspects of mannerisms and functions. And for her, BTR was just a step into, “I just need to know that I can walk away from the sport with a positive mentality.”

So she did it, and she won the championship. She did not win every race, however, which everybody thought was going to happen. She really had to work for what she did. And she was able to walk away with that positive mentality of the sport.

We've also had racers that are stay-at-home moms that needed to get out of their own headspace and figure out who they were again.

Another one of our riders – Shasta L'Heureux – same thing. She had been racing her whole life but never really had that full sense of accomplishment with it. But after BTR and winning a race, she has kept racing and kept riding a Royal Enfield, and she feels that sense of accomplishment.

So there is that side of things – the more emotional side of things that we love. And that's what I think also helps with the culture of BTR.

But then we also have riders that do want to go pro after and aim for that. And that's what's really cool about our program.

AFT: Okay, I’ve got two bonus questions. The first one is, can you name an interest or hobby of yours that is completely removed from racing, engines, or wheels? 

JL: Absolutely. I went to school for six years for nutrition and dietetics. I did definitely fall into my life, thankfully, because my brother is Johnny Lewis. But if you asked me then what I would be doing right now, this is not what I would have guessed.

My path has now gone to this. And with this, I get to do a little bit of everything. I get to spend time with my brother, which is really cool. And, like I said, I’ve been in racing my entire life. And I think I really am blessed that I have the background in nutrition and everything like that for sure.

It’s cool that I get to put all of the things that I've learned into play and have it used for a positive.

Also, horses are my big thing too (laughs). I did horses and Johnny did motorcycles.

AFT: Last question. What would be your death row-style last meal? 

JL: That's easy. There's a taco truck in Niles, California, and it is my absolute favorite. Steak and shrimp tacos, for sure. Street style.

Jennifer Lewis congratulates Emma Gottsch [Photo: Kristen Lassen for AMA Pro Racing]