BUFFALO TWP — Plenty of questions surround Tuesday night's World of Outlaws Late Model race at Lernerville Speedway.

Heat races for the 50-lap feature, which is being called the Showdown in Sarvertown, begin at 8 p.m. Time trials start at 7:15.

The feature winner will receive $10,000.

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Who will take the checkered flag?The last six Outlaws Late Model features have produced six different winners.Entering this weekend's Outlaws races at K-C Raceway in Chillicothe, Ohio, Steve Francis, Shannon Babb, Earl Pearson Jr., Shane Clanton, Jeff Smith and Chris Madden have won the series' most recent six features.With back-to-back wins in early March, Francis is the only driver in the series with two wins. Points leader Darrell Lanigan is still looking for his first.•

What will track conditions be like?They haven't been favorable for Late Models over the past few weeks."You hate to see your equipment get busted up by the racetrack, but that's happened to some guys here lately," said Saxonburg's Alex Ferree, a two-time Lernerville Late Model points champion. "You get enough damage when you get into other cars."Ferree damaged the right front end of his No. 4 car in the feature a week ago, hitting the wall in the front straightaway while trying to avoid Greg Satterlee."Greg hit one of those holes coming around Turn 3 and came up toward the top of the track," Ferree said. "I could have either fishtailed him or swung up higher to avoid him."I thought I saved it there for a minute, but I ran out of room."Satterlee was particularly critical of the track conditions that night, but is confident the problem will be corrected by Tuesday."Honestly, I'm not concerned about it," said Satterlee, who won at Lernerville on opening night. "The crew here will get it straightened out. If not, the drivers will have to adjust."That's where the Outlaws have an edge. Those guys are so good that they adjust to tracks quickly. With us, it can take a while."Veteran Late Model driver Lynn Geisler of Cranberry Township just hopes conditions improve."It has to be better than it's been," he said. "The weather hasn't been helping any. We need dry weather and haven't been getting it."More heavy rain fell on the track Friday night, forcing cancellation of the show before the Late Models could get their heat races in."That's what's hurting me," local driver Gary Lyle said. "I've got a different car, different motor — everything's new for me and I just haven't been able to get enough racing in leading up to this show."Ferree said soft spots on the track haven't been able to harden because of the lack of sunshine."When it stays moist like it's been, even when those spots are treated, they return after a number of laps," he said. "We need a stretch of warm, dry weather, and it's not happening now."•

Can a local driver compete favorably with the pros?"You need a favorable starting position," Lyle said. "That comes through time trials and I've never done well there."I need that rabbit (another car) out there for me to gauge how well I'm doing. I think I'm fast during qualifying, but I'm obviously not when my time goes on the board."I'm a good half-second to full-second behind. That starts me at the back of the heat race and won't qualify me for the feature. We can run with these (Outlaws) up front, but we're not going to zip past them," Lyle added.Satterlee agreed with that analysis."Do poorly in qualifying, you're in for a bad night," he said. "We're not used to qualifying laps and they are. That gives them a big advantage right off the bat."