It’s all about getting better.

The 2012 Lernerville Speedway dirt track racing season doesn’t begin until April 20, but four track regulars have already turned plenty of laps.

Late Model drivers John Garvin Jr. of Sarver and Gregg Satterlee of Rochester Mills, Sprint drivers Danny Holtgraver of Pittsburgh and Brandon Matus of Wampum recently returned from a series of races in Florida.

Garvin competed in Sylvania, Ga., as well, taking part in Georgia and Florida Speed Weeks.

“We had a good qualifying run in Georgia, 17th out of 65 cars, and we had a good car,” Garvin said. “Florida was kind of rough ... I hit the wall once and we had some motor problems.

“It was my fault, mainly. I was trying too hard.”

Garvin closed the 2011 season by posting his first Lernerville victory at the Steel City Stampede, the track’s final event of the season.

The southern trip marked Garvin’s second in three years.

“Getting seat time and getting out of the cold weather is why we go,” Garvin said. “The competition is unreal. There were 65 cars in our division in Georgia, 80 cars in Florida.

“You talk to other drivers, see what they’re doing with their cars, get a feel for your own car. It puts you ahead of the game a little bit.”

Satterlee is always busy, having raced 59 times in 2011 and winning six features. Two of those victories were at Lernerville and he has 25 feature wins overall in the past three seasons.

This was Satterlee’s first racing trip to Florida.

“We’ve always wanted to go, but it’s tough getting two race cars and a hauler ready to go in February,” Satterlee said. “Financially, there’s no benefit to going, but it’s worth it for what you learn.

“Besides, we like to race anybody, anywhere.”

Satterlee made the feature four times in 10 attempts in Florida. He finished fifth in one race, 10th in another.

“There was too much mud in a wheel in one race, I got spun out in another. ... When you’re racing in Volusia (Fla.) with an 80-car field, there’s no room for error,” Satterlee said.

Holtgraver won his first Lernerville feature in 2010 and made his third trip south in six years. At age 22, he’s still one of the youngest Sprint drivers at Lernerville.

“I’d go every year if I could, but it’s hard to throw the money together,” Holtgraver said. “There was rain down that way, but we went to Ocala (Fla.) for three races and they got them all in.

“We broke the first night and ran third another night. There were 25 to 28 cars in the field and 20 of them could have won. The field was very competitive.”

Holtgraver enjoyed the challenge of racing somewhere he’s never been.

“A new track, a new surface, you have to be able to adapt,” he said. “There were a lot of cars from out east down there and those guys beat the Outlaws when they come to their track.

“It was good racing, but we have guys like Ed Lynch, Rod George and Bob Felmlee up this way, so it’s good racing here as well. For me, it was the experience of going somewhere different.”

Matus, 17, is a fourth-generation driver who secured his first Lernerville feature win in August of last year.

He raced in Ocala as well and finished in the top 20 one night. He won a B-Main another night.

“I’ve been down there before crewing for my dad (Brent Matus), but this was my first time racing down south,” Matus said. “The traveling, staying in the hotel, working on the car in a parking lot, it was fun to experience all that.

“Basically, I wanted to get my name out there by racing against bigger names.”

Garvin and Satterlee plan to do more traveling during the 2012 season, though both will run at Lernerville fairly often.

“I’m at the point, competitively, where I feel like I can win any race I’m in,” Garvin said. “I’m looking for a breakthrough year.”

Holtgraver is looking for a breakthrough career.

“I’ve been racing stuff since I was 5,” he said. “If I can race something for a living, I’ll do it — Sprint, Indy, NASCAR, go-kart, it doesn’t matter.”