Mapletown’s Dingle excelling

Ethan Dingle has been on his bike since he was 3 years old.
He’s been in some big races since that start and was in another one last Sunday at High Point Raceway in Mount Morris.
The 16-year-old junior at Mapletown High School revved up his dirt bike and wound up in fifth place in the AMSOIL Grand National Cross Country series event. It was his fourth top-five finish of the season.
Dingle was coming off his best finish on the tour, second place at the Black Sky event in Harpursville, N.Y. He is tied for third place in the national standings for the 250C Schoolboy Class racers with two stops left.
Josh Vankirk of Amity, who is currently in second place, was injured in an accident two weeks ago. He is nine points ahead of Dingle, who trails the leader, Ben Thomason of South Carolina, by 30 points.
“I’ve taken some spills,” he said, “but the worst that ever happened was I got the wind knocked out of me.”
Dingle’s other three top-5 finishes, along with Harpursville, came in the Camp Coker race in Society Hill, S.C. (third place); and the X-Factor Race in Peru, Ind. (fourth).
“I’ve been on the High Point course about 10 or 15 times,” Dingle said.
Dingle is friends with and sometimes practices with Ian Flynn, who is a year older, competes in a higher class than Dingle in dirt bike racing and is a former GNCC series winner. Flynn, of Greensboro, competed in the 4-Stroke A Lites Class at High Point last weekend and finished second. He ranks sixthin the class, 41 points from the leader.
Dingle rides a Yamaha and has sponsorships from the Morgantown Powersports, RD1 Outdoors, and the Bobtown Rod and Gun Club.
Dingle has competed across the country including stops in Georgia, Florida, North Carolina and Ohio. This is the second year in a row Dingle has been in the chase for a national title in this class.
“Depending on how the season goes, I might move up in class,” said Dingle. “This class is age 14 to 17. After this race, I’ll just practice more, trying to get better.”
Each round of the GNCC series is televised on the NBC Sports Network and is streamed live on racerTV.com.
Rob Burchianti contributed to this story.