In the song "My Back Pages" by Bob Dylan, the refrain goes in part: "but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now."

Monongahela's Larry Behanna is finding that sentiment rings true on the race track.

Behanna, 35, races in the late model division at Motordrome Speedway in Smithton. A veteran of some 20 years in local racing circles, Behanna said he is finding that the more experience he seems to gain, the less he seems to know.

"We've been running OK this year," he said. "Not great, not as well as we would like. Right now it's getting harder to figure out what's wrong. We're just not running as well as we would like to be."

Behanna and his crew, which includes crew chief Kevin Dewar, friend John Dotton and Behanna's father, Larry Behanna, Sr., has been working for the past few weeks on a new car setup Behanna hopes will hold the key that will unlock a path to victory lane.

So far though, no luck.

"I've been in racing for a long time and you would think that experience would help," Behanna said with a chuckle. "But it seems like when I was younger, we were a lot better. Things would go wrong and you could figure them out pretty fast, get them right and get right back out there.

"Right now, we just can't put our finger on what's wrong. I don't understand it. You're supposed to get smarter with age, not go the other way. But we'll get it figured out."

Behanna has two feature race wins in his career and more than 20 heat race victories. He has upward of 50 top-five finishes and 80-plus top-10 finishes, so he knows what it takes to succeed. He and his crew just have not figured out what it's going to take to succeed this season.

"We're going to keep after it because we enjoy racing so much," he said. "There is something about the challenge to it. Part of it is what you can get the cars to do and the other thing is the competition against the other guys. It's a lot of fun to compete like that and we enjoy it."

Behanna got into racing, by his estimation, almost 25 years ago when he began attending races as a kid. Over the years, neighbors and friends who were involved in the sport more directly provided an entry point for Behanna, who worked on a number of crews before getting his own ride and beginning to drive on local dirt tracks.

He has moved up the ladder from street stocks to pure stocks to late models and intends to keep racing for as long as he can.

Like many local drivers, one of the key stumbling blocks for Behanna is money. He works as an auto body repairman, but the demands of work coupled with the amount of time it takes to work with his race car leave little time for the necessary fund-raising.

As a result, when he shreds a tire or is involved in an accident, as can often occur, it can be a significant setback.

"A lot of success in racing at this level relates to money," he said. "We're not putting the tires on the vehicle that we should be, or that we need to have on there to really be competitive, and that makes it tougher.

"We got a little late start this year, but it's been fun," he said. "It hasn't been a great year yet, but it hasn't been a bad one either. Right now, it's pretty simple. We're not going fast enough. But we're working on the setup. We'll get there."

The track championship may be out of reach thanks to the slow start, but he has other goals in mind.

"I'd like to at least get into the top five every now and then," he said. "A couple of wins would be nice. We're not there yet, though. But we feel like we're getting closer. We'll get there."

First Published: July 13, 2007, 11:15 a.m.