Bridger: Arlington will always be my home (From The Argus)

Bridger: Arlington will always be my home

3:30pm Friday 19th March 2010 in

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Sussex boy Lewis Bridger insists Eastbourne will always be his home track.

But the British under-21 champion star admits he might get a mixed reaction when he visits Arlington as an away rider for the first time.

Bridger, still only 20, made the big break this winter when he left until now his only Elite League club and joined ambitious Peterborough on loan.

The Panthers come to Sussex tomorrow for a season-opening challenge fixture (7.30pm) and it will not take long for the drama to start.

Bridger goes in the very first race of the Arlington season against new Eagles No. 1 Matej Zagar and fiery fans’ favourite Lukas Dryml.

Zagar and Dawid Lampart make their Eastbourne debuts and Joonas Kylmakorpi kicks off his third stint for the club in the run-up to next Saturday’s league opener at home to Swindon.

Bridger, who will continue to live in Bexhill during his time with Peterborough, said: “I don’t know what reception I’ll get back at Eastbourne. A bit of both I suppose but it will be fine “It’s a loan deal. I’m going away to get experience at a big track.

“Eastbourne is my home track, where I was brought up and where I will carry on my career.

“But I needed to get away to improve. Maybe it will be one season, maybe two, maybe three.

“I might want to get back after a season. It depends how I’m doing.

“And of course it depends on money.”

Which is where the rider snapped up on his 16th birthday by then Eastbourne boss Jon Cook in late 2005 has hit the nail on the head.

Eagles co-promoter Bob Dugard has admitted his club could not afford to keep Bridger, still one of the hottest young properties in British speedway. The Sussex outfit are delighted to be racing at all after revealing losses of £70,000 last season.

They have brought in a new co-promoter in Mike Bellerby and commercial manager in Chris MacDonald and attracted a major backer in Lifestyle Europe.

They also hope a 100 Club and a contentious switch to Thursday night racing, which kicks in after May, help them turn things around this season.

Bridger admitted: “I was treated well by Eastbourne but Peterborough is a bigger city and they seem to have more money and sponsors.

“It’s a pretty awesome set-up.”

Revitalised Eagles reckon they are putting together a nice little set-up of their own and face a good test by a Panthers side who beat a select line-up led by Jason Crump and Nicki Pedersen on Monday.

Eagles team manager Trevor Geer said: “We had three days of practice last week around our press and practice day and this is a nice warm-up with our full team before the league starts.

“We go into the season looking to surprise all the pundits who again seem to be tipping us to finish bottom.”

New Eastbourne captain Cameron Woodward kicks off his season at Somerset tonight, where he has been called in as a late replacement for Roman Povazhny in the Rebels’ tenth anniversary meeting.

A quality field includes GP stars Crump, Hans Andersen and Emil Sajfutdinov as well as former Eagles stars Bridger and Lee Richardson.

Eagles: Zagar, Dryml, Kylmakorpi, Woodward, Gustafsson, Kling, Lampart.

Peterborough: Iversen, Bridger, Ostergaard, Bjerre, Batchelor, Eklof, Buczkowski,