Thursday night’s World of Outlaws Craftsman Late Model Series-sanctioned Firecracker 100 preliminary program at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa., has been postponed to Saturday afternoon due to late-afternoon downpours that left the track surface unsuitable for competition.

The event was scheduled to be the first of two 30-lap, $6,000-to-win preliminary cards leading into Saturday evening’s 11th annual Firecracker 100 finale that boasts a $30,000 first-place prize. Officials now hope to kick off the weekend with Friday night’s scheduled preliminary show and contest a doubleheader on Saturday with Thursday’s program starting at 1 p.m. and the Firecracker 100 headliner that evening.

Several pop-up thunderstorms that passed over Lernerville on Thursday afternoon — including an extremely strong cell that deluged the facility just before 4 p.m. — caused WoO and track officials to push back the program’s start time. After the rain slowed, and then stopped (with some sun peaking out), around 4:30 p.m., Lernerville’s Dan Bauman-led track crew began circling the 4/10-mile oval with a couple packer trucks and a tractor disc in hopes of whipping the surface into shape before the process was halted at 5:30 p.m. by a short downpour that ultimately doomed the event.

Bauman’s team made another attempt to run in the track, but around 8:30 p.m. officials determined that they were fighting a losing battle and the decision to postpone was made.

About 40 cars were on the grounds for Thursday’s action.