Ingle turning heads in short motocross span

By STEVE CANNULI

Published: July 22, 2008

In just six months of motocross racing, Reidsville’s Coby Ingle is already turnings heads at many of the tracks he’s ran and the 7-year-old is now preparing for the Loretta Lynn’s – the 2008 AMA National Motocross Championships next week.
Ingle’s first race was in South Carolina in February and in his short time on a bike, he has already compiled 28 races – including 7 first-place finishes. Twenty out of the 28 races (71 percent), Ingle has finished in the top three. Keep in mind that he is also racing against kids in his same age group, but the others have much more experience.
So with no history of racing in the Ingle bloodlines, Coby Ingle’s success cannot be at-tributed to anything but skill and hard work.
“I just like to jump,” said Ingle.
“He kept asking me to do for about a year or more and I kept saying no and then a buddy of mine bought me a bike and Coby [he] had a little one he rode in the yard and we just went and done it,” said Coby’s father, Adam. “After that I said ‘we got to get him a big-ger bike.’”
A newcomer to racing, Ingle – a student Wentworth Elementary – has always been inter-ested in the more traditional sports such as baseball, soccer and basketball.
Anyone who knows him needs to look no further than earlier this year when a motocross-riding accident looked to hamper his baseball playing.
“He got injured in Pennsylvania and was out four weeks with a broken elbow,” said Adam Ingle. “He played baseball anyways, with a cast on.”
Not only did Ingle play, but he went 6 for 9 (.667) batting with his cast on.
He later had to make a tough decision – play with his all-star team in an upcoming tour-nament or try to qualify for nationals.
Ingle’s decision paid off as his all-star mates lost their first two games, but he qualified for the upcoming nationals, which will be held from July 28 through Aug. 2.
Having already suffered an injury within his first six months of racing, Ingle’s mother, Yancey, is getting more and more comfortable with her son’s choice of sports.
“It’s not too bad because he’s on a little bike,” she said. “I’m sure as he gets bigger and the bikes get higher it will be worse. He’s real smart. He knows when he can jump and when he can’t.”
With nearly 33 different classes in Tennessee, Ingle will be running in the youth’s AMA class.
Next week’s nationals will feature the top 40 kids in the country. Ingle is just one of two kids from North Carolina headed to the event.
And although his friends and classmates are not familiar with motocross racing, Adam Ingle likes what he sees when his son competes at these events.
“We meet people from everywhere when we go to these races,” he said. “We’ve all made a lot of friends. Everyone is so helpful too.”
“My friends tell me I’m crazy for racing and I tell them ‘you’re crazy if you don’t do sports.’”
Despite the rising gas prices, the Ingles have already traveled to Tennessee, South Caro-lina, Virginia and Pennsylvania. Couple that with the need to get Coby a new bike and his desire to compete and Adam and Yancey are looking to sell their house and roll the dice on their son’s ability.
“He’s got such an attitude to do things,” said Adam. “Coby is starting to understand more about the bike and more and more people are telling us he’s got what it takes.”
The nationals are going to be a step up for Ingle. After running 5-6 laps in his previous races, he’ll know need to run longer in order to compete for a national title.
Coby Ingle’s hectic schedule will continue. For the Ingles, the season is drawing to an end (October), but starts back up again in a few short months – in February.