Introducing: BSB Junior Supersport Racer, Chloe Jones

”My name is Chloe Jones I am a 17-year-old female racer in the Junior Supersport class of the Bennett’s British Superbikes Championship. I race on a Yamaha R3 and have been riding this bike for just over two years.

I started out in racing when I was 13 years old. I had never really been to a race track but went along to a club meet with my dad’s friend who was racing and fell in love with it all – the bikes, the paddock and just the whole atmosphere of being there. Obviously, I was too little to ride big bikes, so we went to watch the minibikes at a track near where I live. Just like the big bikes, I loved it and asked my parents if I could have one. They agreed and bought me a really cheap Chinese mini moto – they thought I would have one fall and it would put me off, but it did the complete opposite and made me want to do it even more!

During my first ever race, I fell off about five times but kept getting back on it and kept going. In my first full year’s racing the mini motos in the Novice class, I even won the championship. It was the best feeling ever. The following year I went into the Pro class and managed to finish that year second in the championship.

Also, during that year (my second year on a bike), I managed to talk my parents into buying me a Mini GP 140 bike. That was the next step up for me. I had only had the bike a couple of weeks and only managed to get out and practice on it twice, but managed to talk my parents into letting me race it. I absolutely loved the bike and I won that first race on it. So that was it – I was hooked. I had missed three rounds on that bike but raced the rest of the season on it and I came third in the class.

”The next year, I got to do a full season on the Mini GP 140 and I won the class with a round and a half to spare. I also missed a round as my mum booked a holiday before the dates were released.

We were a bit unsure what to do the following year as I still wasn’t quite ready to move up to the big bikes (I’m a bit short and couldn’t touch the floor) so we decided to get a Honda CRF150 and race with the adults still in the British Minibike paddock. That was definitely a learning year and I did learn a lot from the adults and I also got some brilliant top-10 finishes.

At the end of that year, I could just about touch the floor on a Yamaha R3. Okay, it may have been with one foot in the air, but for me that was enough. I took my ACU licence and raced the last two rounds of British Superbikes in the Junior Supersport class. It was amazing – I even finished Brands Hatch in seventh place, managing to stay on the bike in very wet conditions when many didn’t.

In 2019 I got to do my first full season in BSB and was going from strength to strength but unfortunately while competing in a club championship I was knocked off and broke my collar bone. This really did put me back for the rest of the season and I did struggle. I was absolutely gutted as I was at my fittest physically and mentally at the time and it all just seemed to get washed away with that one crash.

”I did have some laser surgery and other treatments to help and I was back on the bike within two and a half weeks, but my strength just wasn’t good enough. I persevered through and finished the season, just not to the standard I knew I could have achieved before the accident. But that’s racing and I have learnt from it and have used it to push myself.

In 2020, I went out to Cartagena and as my team worded it, I was on fire. I had smashed my previous best times there and was hitting all the lines and corners where I needed to – I was so excited for the season.

Then for us all Covid hit – 2020 was a very strange year. Unfortunately, I just seemed to get bashed around on the track. I got knocked off several times and also had a few crashes that were my fault. It just wasn’t my year; in one race I was completely shoved off the track, the bike was so bashed up I thought that was going to be the end of my season. Luckily, I have some of the most amazing sponsors and they all got me back out there in time for the next round. I seem to always be learning in this sport and 2020 was definitely one of the years I learnt a lot.

”Going into the 2021 season, I have used the time to get myself as fit as possible both physically and mentally. I am cycling non-stop on my bike with a lot of my racing friends and other riders in the BSB paddock. I am also training with Christian Iddon who has been pushing me to get as fit as I can. I am feeling strong and now just want to get out training on the Yamaha R3.

This year, I want to be up the top. I want to be finishing top-3 but I know there are some amazing racers in the series I am just going to have to give it my all. I am hoping to move up to the 600s after the 300 but I guess that all depends on how I do this year. I want to show my sponsors and everyone else that I can do this. I know some people still think girls can’t do this and I want to show them and all those young girls that want to get into the sport that we can. We have just as much chance as anyone. One of my inspirations is Anna Carrasco – when she won the WSP300 it inspired me to carry on. I was so happy for her and what it meant for us in this sport.

My all-time favourite rider is Rossi; he is amazing, such an inspiration to everyone in the sport. I have not met him, but it is my mission to one day say hi to him, although I’d maybe be too starstruck to even speak.

I know it may sound crazy but one day I would love to be sat on that starting grid in Moto GP. Looking up at the lights waiting for them to change, I think it would feel like I’d actually won the race already.