BUFFALO TWP— Two ninth-place feature finishes might be OK for some young drivers.

They didn't sit well with second-year Late Model driver Johnny Garvin Jr., however.

The Sarver resident, who drives the No. J4 car, finished 15th with 262 points last season at Lernerville Speedway. He never finished higher than ninth in a feature and finished toward the back of the pack on a few occasions.

In World of Outlaws Late Model qualifying Aug. 16, Garvin's time was 35th fastest out of 40 cars.

"People have told me I did OK, but that was unacceptable to me,"Garvin said.

So he decided to do something about it.

Garvin, 26, and his crew, consisting of his father, longtime Late Model racer John Garvin, and a family friend, tore the car apart after the season and put it back together.

"We stripped it down to the bare frame,"Garvin said. "We worked on that car every weekend since the season ended.

"All of last year, the car was running loose, loose, loose. We've balanced it more on the tighter side and I'm a little more comfortable with it."

Still, Garvin wanted to test it out, so he hauled the car to Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla., to drive in the Alltel DIRTcar Nationals Feb. 7 to 18 and competed on six consecutive nights.

"It was his idea to make that trip,"the elder Garvin said. "He wanted to get a quick start to this year because he has high expectations for this season."

Garvin was part of a field of more than 90 cars at the national event and never qualified for a feature there.

But he got faster.

"From our first night there to our fifth, we picked up two seconds in terms of speed,"Garvin said. "That doesn't sound like much, but a tenth of a second is the difference in 10 spots when you're among a field of cars like that.

"Yeah, it was expensive to make that trip, but it's going to pay off in the long run. That was invaluable seat time."

Garvin was impressed by the fact he raced six straight nights and didn't put a scratch on the car.

"You race six straight nights at Lernerville and you're putting a new body on your car," he said. "To not even get a nick on my car ... that shows how much those pro drivers respect equipment and what it costs.

"A lot of it has to do with driver skill, too, there's no questioning that."

Garvin's father raced consistently at Lernerville from 1977-97, winning his first feature when he was a senior at Freeport High. He won nearly 20 features in his career.

When his son decided to hit the track last year, the elder Garvin returned as well, since the family owns two Late Models.

"I mostly help out Johnny, but I'll still run the other car on occasion,"he said. "I don't know how much I'll run this year. I'm tired of him kicking my butt."

Also a Freeport graduate, the younger Garvin raced for half a season when he was 16. Finances prevented both from racing at the same time, so he stayed off the track for nearly a decade.

Now he's ready to follow in his father's footsteps.

"I want to be a consistent top-five driver this year,"he said. "I had a couple of heat wins and top-five finishes at Marion Center last year, but that's not Lernerville.

"I want to prove I belong out there with the best in the area — and they run right here."

Lernerville Speedway's season opener is March 28.