Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Jennifer Snyder all that, but it doesn't matter - I still get the motorcycles and I still get to race 'em," Snyder says with a smile. "If they say anything to me, that will only make me want to do that much better." Snyder comes from a racing family. Her father raced and her sister raced. At the age of 10, Snyder started riding. A year later she was racing. "I started riding around our barn in circles," she says. "I started in circles and I haven't stopped." Cycle News caught up with Snyder in the weeks leading up to her debut as a factory Harley-Davidson rider and pried some answers from the softspoken teenager. If someone would have told you a year ago that you'd be Harley-Davidson factory rider, what would you have told them? I wouldn't have believed them. I've only just turned Pro, and I haven't really had many sponsors. can you describe the chain of events that led to you getting the ride? We were doing the west coast races and the Texas Racer's Association got us some money for my dad to go out to the west coast. We were in Phoenix, Arizona, and Bill Werner [the factory team's tuner] started helping us with the bike and we started talking to him. At Del Mar, they said they'd be interested in helping me. What exactly was Werner helping you with? Q A Q A Q Just the setup mostly of the bike. I don't know why he was helping us. At Phoenix, we had parked our motorhome out there and he came and' started talking about how my bike handled. We had some problems with our C&J [chassis] and the way it was handling. He got us a spring for that and it helped a lot. HOW did it go from a little trackside assistance to a factory ride? I don't know, to tell you the truth. At Del Mar, they told us they wanted to help. I think they were on top of it then because we were talking to other companies - like Suzuki - so they knew they had to get things going before somebody picked it up. How did you get involved in motorcycle racing? A Q A Q Through my dad and my sister. My dad has always raced and my sister started racing and I copied everything she did. That's how I got started. AS a young girl racing motorcycles, did you ever catch any flack from your friends about what you were doing? No, but I really didn't care. I just did whatever I wanted. Has being a female racer presented any problems in your career? Have there been any obstacles that perhaps a male racer wouldn't have had to deal with? No. I can't tell you any real differences because I don't know what it's like to be a guy racer. I just know what it's like to be a girl. I do know that guys don't like to be beaten by a girl - they really get ragged on by their friends when they get beaten by a girl. A Q BY PAUL CARRUTHERS AND CHRIS JONNUM PHOTOS BY SCOTT ROUSSEAU I .I ennifer Snyder is your typical teenaged girl. She smiles a lot, is a tad on the shy side with strangers, and embarrasses easily. But that's where the similarities end. You definitely won't find Snyder at the mall on weekends. Instead you'll find her in the rough and tumble world of professional flat track racing, pushing and shoving her way around dirt ovals in an attempt to hold her position against a plethora of seasoned veterans. No big deal. Just another woman racer. 42 MARCH 14, 2001 • cue I e n e _ But let's not forget that Snyder will compete in 2001 as a Harley-Davidson factory rider, joining the likes of Scott Parker, Jay Springsteen, Gary Scott, Corky Keener, Randy Goss, Rex Beauchamp, Bart Markel... an impressive list indeed. Add Snyder to that roll and you can see why her hiring has sent shock waves through the dirt track racing fraternity. Snyder isn't na"ive. She knows that being a female has helped her land the ride of a lifetime. She knows that she will hear about it from time to time. She's also capable of putting it all in perspective. "I realize a lot of the reason is because I'm a female in this sport and because of the publicity and s A Q A

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