NOTE:
This article originally appeared in the June 19, 2007 issue of RPM Racing News
Wayne ‘The Sniper’ Chinn of Bradford, OH is a third generation dirt Late Model racer who you will invariably be hearing a lot more of over the coming seasons. The 26-year-old already has a long and experienced career as a racer beginning with karts in 1995 until 1998 when he moved on to full size Midgets competing with NAMARS and USAC. During the next couple years Chinn also dabbled in Silver Crown cars before moving on to UMP Modifieds in 2003 where he nailed down the Ohio state UMP Modified championship in before switching over to dirt Late Models mid-season in 2004 where he scored the ’04 Florence Speedway Rookie of the Year title.
Wanting laps and a variety of track surface experience, Chinn hit the road with the Battle of the Bluegrass and finished an impressive eighth in series points and second in the rookie program. With the 2006 season Chinn hit his stride by taking four feature wins and racing at a wide variety of local and regional events.
Chinn, a very articulate young man who, according to some of his competitors, is a gifted driver who improves each time out, is now firmly entrenched in second place in Independent Racing Series (IRS) points, one marker off leader Rick Aukland, and sits atop the IRS Rookie of the Year standings. For 2007 Chinn and his team is looking squarely at the IRS title.
“We actually talked to (IRS owner) Dean (Miracle) about it before the season started and talked about what he wanted to do with the series and the original plan was to keep it within a three or four hour radius of home but its ventured somewhat outside of that but he has tried to keep it fairly close,” responded Chinn when asked why he chose the IRS. “We have trips to Virginia and we were at Challenger.”
“We ran the Battle of the Bluegrass Series a few years ago and there were a lot of six hour trips and seven hour trips. But the IRS does have a good payout. If you can run top five or top ten you don’t look at the checkbook at the end of the week and say, Oh man, what are we going to do next weekend?”
“Dean knows what he’s doing, he’s been around for along time. He’s been around and I don’t think it’s a fly by night operation by any means.”
Chinn is making his mark this season driving the Chinn Motorsports owned, Erwin Chrysler Dodge Jeep of Troy Ohio, AWP of OHIO, Hendricks Auto Service, Coulter Pallet & Container sponsored Dodge Rocket Chassis #1. The team is owned by his father, Jim Chinn, and crewed by Kevin Kauffman, Gary Wright, Tilt Moore, Jimmy Chinn and Chinn’s girlfriend, Jaemie Kessler. Jody Shannon handles the team’s PR.
“We have a good crew and there is a guy named Kevin Kauffman who is a great help to me,” said Chinn. “Down the road it’d be great to have someone help full time throughout the week would be nice but we’re not there yet.”
“Extremely!” responded Chinn when asked how important his father is to his career. “He has been there the whole way through. Biggest fan, biggest supporter, best friend and best sponsor (laughs)! He’s pretty much the head of the team I’m pretty lucky to have what I got.”
Chinn also appreciates the contributions made by his girlfriend, Jaemie. “She is very, very important,” commented Chinn. “She does all the filming and all the records and its not an easy task to keep track of the laps the engines get and all of that. She keeps us what’s going on at the track and keeps us updated and get the line-ups and qualifying order. She keeps us in our place so we don’t miss anything. You know she is not there when she misses a race. She is a huge help at the track.”
When asked about his goals for the 2007 season Chinn focuses on the IRS title. “I want to win this point series,” Chinn flatly stated. “I understand it’s a pretty high goal we’re up against with Rick Aukland, Robbie Scott and all those guys, but we have positioned ourselves to do it. Right now we’re leading the rookie points and we’re one point behind Rick Aukland in the series points. We just got show up points at Challenger because they had a misunderstanding with the track promoter or we would be leading the points right now. But regardless of that we want to win the points this year. We’d like to get a few wins and keep consistent finishes in that points deal.”
And what if he would claim the IRS title? “It’d mean a lot,” understated Chinn. “It’s the inaugural year but to be the first name in the books would be pretty neat. And it would also mean we performed pretty well keeping up with those guys. That’s important to me. And don’t get me wrong, I’d love to win some of the bigger races and just make the field of the World 100, but there is so much that goes along with making those races. But that’s the kind of races we’re going to and try and make the races.”
During the past couple weeks I spoke with at least three drivers who are racing the IRS series and spoke with them about Chinn. Each had nothing but compliment son his driving, his on-track demeanor and each showed Chinn respect. Chinn was humble when this was related to him.
“It kind of reconfirms you’re doing things right,” responded Chinn. “The respect thing, I do have a lot of respect for other drivers. We work hard all week to go out here and do that. You race them clean and if you’re good you figure out how to get by them or get your car right and get in front without having to beat your way through. And for the most part everybody in that series everybody races clean. But it is neat to have people say good things about you.”
As for the rest of the year, Chinn will hit all the IRS races in addition to bigger paying regional shows and some end of the year national events. “Next weekend the IRS is at KC and I’m looking forward to that race,” said Chinn. “We do pretty well at KC. We’ve had some pretty good success. My brother won there once and I finished second which was kind of bittersweet but we took the first two spots of money out of there.”
“I want to get to some of the bigger races like the World 100 and the Dirt Track World Championship. The Dirt Track World Championship keeps getting bigger and there are those crown jewels and when you get there and look around, its almost harder to make the race than win it. I really feel like once we get our team on schedule here and everything goes alright for us, when we’re pretty confident, I really feel like we’re going to be pretty tough.”
“I feel good in the races, especially the long races. It just seems like I’d rather be in a 50-lapper than a 30-lapper and Id rather be in a 100-lapper than a 50-lapper. Its all tire management but just being able to make those shows and once we can start doing that consistently, I hope to then get in front of them.”
“I understand there is experience and a learning curve and the more you’re in it, the more you learn.”
And believe me, The Sniper will be learning where victory lane is more frequently as the weeks and months go by.
You can find out more on Wayne ‘The Sniper’ Chinn at: www.waynechinn1.com
©2007 Doc Lehman/Dirt America |