Border Country Sports-August 15th

Good Morning! With the Border Country Sports Report, I'm Keith Harrington.

I had another nice day with my horse racing picks at Saratoga yesterday. I hope it helped a few of you have a successful day. I was 5 for 10 to bring my recent mark to 19-40. Nearly 50%. Not bad for n amateur!

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Katrina Bean Holds off Miller for Devil's Bowl Victory

Katrina Bean has a history with the number 12. In 2019 Bean wore the number on her Fair Haven Slater’s basketball jersey as she helped lead her team to the Division II basketball state championship with a win over Lakes Region at the Barre Auditorium. So, it’s only fitting that Bean sports the same number on her Miss Fire Motorsports race car.

Bean put her machine and the #12 in victory lane Saturday night at Devil’s Bowl as she claimed the second Limited Sportsmen Modified Division win of her career. It was her first win of the season after a difficult start to the season while dialing in a new car.

Bean took advantage of a starting position at the front of the field, raced down the leader to seize control then fought of hard charging Steve Miller to hold on for the popular victory. The win comes a little over a year from the date of her first modified win after moving up from the Mini Stock division.

“Steve was really good tonight. He bumped me a little bit,” Bean said while being interview in victory lane after the race. “I had a lot of patience tonight. I was smooth, I was smooth.”

The last three laps were a battle of the ages as Miller, a 65-year-old rookie on dirt pulled up on the bumper of the youngster, a 2019 graduate of Fair Haven. Bean maintained her poise and held of Miller, a veteran of years of racing on asphalt.

Bean’s finance Josh LeClaire also had one of the fastest cars on the track. After an incident in the early laps that forced him to restart 17th LeClaire rallied for a fifth place finish.

If the race was a few laps longer Bean knows she would have had to contend with LeClaire.

“He was coming for me,” Bean said.

I will have complete Devil’s Bowl from Saturday night in tomorrow’s report.

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Football Practice Begins Today in Vermont

Today the day that I have seen some label as a holiday. It is the first day of high school football practice on Vermont, and the two teams closest to the Border Country Sports region will begin gearing up for their 2022 campaigns. Dave Capman’s Poultney Blue Devils and Jim Hill’s Fair Haven Slaters will both start getting put through their paces today in preparation for their season openers.

Poultney is coming off of a 1-8 season with a young, rebuilding squad and should be in a position to improve. The Blue Devils open the season on at Dean Houghton Field against Mount Abraham. It will be the annual Firemen’s Classic game.

Capman’s charges will then meet Oxbow and Springfield to round out September. In October the Division III Blue Devils will tangle with Mill River, Otter Valley, Rice Memorial and Fair Haven in the rivalry contest.

Fair Haven opens the season with a pair of road games at U-32 and Bellows Falls. The rest of the September schedule includes Lyndon, Brattleboro and Mount Mansfield.

In October the Slaters will meet North Country, Colchester and wrap the regular season up with the previously mentioned Poultney rivalry game.

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With the Border Country Sports Report, I'm Keith Harrington.

Photo Credit-Miss Fire Motorsports