Eric Bridger marched his way through the field en route to winning the 2018 Knoxville Championship Cup Series 305 Class Title two years ago.
Of his nine career wins in what is now the Pace Pro Class, seven of them came in his second straight championship run, including a stretch of four races in a row.
Up to that point, Bridger was the first driver in the track’s history to rattle off wins in four consecutive weeks in that class. It was a dominant as a driver could get.
After the 2018 season, Bridger took a step forward in his career and put together his own car to compete in the track’s 360 class.
It hasn’t come without hurdles to jump over.
“I’m just trying to get more laps and trying to get better,” Bridger said. “We definitely struggled last year a lot from missing races to not having a lot of track time.”
Knoxville had one of its worst seasons battling mother nature with five rainouts in the first seven weeks.
It got everyone out of rhythm.
Pair that with mechanical issues that impacted Bridger’s 81 car and it was becoming an uphill battle all season.
“We had a couple of engine issues near the beginning (of the season),” Bridger said. “(Engine builder) Al Parker took care of us and got us back onto the track as soon as he could.”
But the Winterset native hopes 2020 could be the year that he gets his car nailed down and starts finding a plethora of success on the racetrack.
He knows it won’t be easy, though. Knoxville hosts some of the toughest weekly races of its kind.
“I think there were a couple of races here and there, but it’s a tough field of cars and a tough night each night,” Bridger said. “It’s going to be a challenge in and out.”
Bridger’s 2020 campaign has only seen two races so far.
He finished P21 in the Pella Motors/Kraig Ford Season Opener two weeks ago and improved to P19 this past Saturday.
The success won’t come quite as quickly as it did for him in the 305 class, but Bridger wants to keep improving as the year goes on.
“I definitely want to compete and win races, but you want to make sure you make the feature each night,” Bridger said. “We want to build off of top 15s and turn them into top 10s and get better each night.”
After two events, the 81 car sits in 14th in the Knoxville Championship Cup Series standings.
Bridger’s goal is to be in the top 10 by Mid-July.
“By late July if we’re in the top 10 (in the points standings), I’ll be pretty happy.”
The series takes a week off due to the nearby World of Outlaws Crown Jewel event in the Jackson Nationals this week, but Bridger will have two chances to improve the following week when Knoxville hosts back-to-back nights of racing on Independence Day weekend.
| Knoxville Raceway 360 Points Standings | ||||
| Position | Driver | Points | Behind | |
| 1 | Jamie Ball | 678 | -0 | |
| 2 | Clint Garner | 644 | -34 | |
| 3 | Carson McCarl | 622 | -56 | |
| 4 | Joe Beaver | 573 | -105 | |
| 5 | Calvin Landis | 554 | -124 | |
| 6 | Lee Grosz | 499 | -179 | |
| 7 | Matt Moro | 470 | -208 | |
| 8 | Kaleb Johnson | 443 | -235 | |
| 9 | Josh Higday | 434 | -244 | |
| 10 | Ryan Leavitt | 406 | -272 | |
| 11 | Rob Kubli | 402 | -276 | |
| 12 | Christian Bowman | 380 | -298 | |
| 13 | Ricky Montgomery | 374 | -304 | |
| 14 | Eric Bridger | 355 | -323 | |
| 15 | Kelby Watt | 348 | -330 | |