Asphalt As the Eye Can See
Designers: Carla & Jeff Horger
It was back in 2014 that designers Carla and Jeff Horger brought their first racing game into the world: Thunder Alley. NASCAR hot rods duked it out on four different tracks, battling each other as well as random events until a team cut through the chaos and emerged victorious.
The very next year, in 2015, GMT Games put out the Thunder Alley Expansion Tracks: four more speedways for enthusiasts to burn rubber on. Business as usual, right? Except ...
Each track, albeit clearly designed for NASCAR action, nonetheless featured fidgety detours intended for subtler adventures. There were also intriguing markings on the lap indicator—instructions about something called "Grand Prix" lasting an additional lap.
Thunder Alley wouldn't remain an only child for much longer.
(Fans of GMT productions knew all about it, because the new game wasn't kept a secret during its development.)
One year later, the foreshadowed Formula 1 version of the racing system came out, also shipping with four circuits of its own. In a departure from the typical NASCAR-looking tracks of its predecessor—misshapen ovals several lanes wide—the new offerings twisted this way and that in a manner more attuned to typical Formula 1 hair-raising maneuvers.
The official party line was that Grand Prix was absolutely playable on Thunder Alley tracks; not only on the expansion pack with its dedicated carve-outs, but also—why not?—on the four original tracks. The more, the merrier. And as if repaying an overdue favor, the circuits that shipped inside the Grand Prix box invited Thunder Alley enthusiasts to also enjoy the fun, with lap indicators sporting TA mentions (and usually making the race a lap shorter).
Just like that, the Thunderverse was born.
Two games, 12 high-velocity playgrounds—thus far.
It would take a few more years for the next entry in the series to reach publication. That was the Mad Max-adjacent Apocalypse Road, in 2020, replete with roof-mounted machine guns and other friendly appendages. Four more tracks joined the ranks; and even though, in this case, they looked more like battlefields—what with their chutes and rough & jump sections—they proved amenable to occasional visits from their more civilized brethren.
Three games strong, the Thunderverse was now racing across 16 different speedways.
In 2023, a mere three years after Apocalypse Road, GMT released the Grand Prix New Track Pack. Because what's wrong with more tracks?
This one offered—you guessed it—four new circuits, once more purpose-built for Grand Prix but usable to quench any Thunder Alley or Apocalypse Road thirst that might be keeping you up at night. (They failed to include any of the specific terrain required for Apocalypse Road to function, but it's something you can remedy with homemade markers.)
So, got enough with those 20 tracks of yours? Hardly.
GMT just published the Thunderverse Track Pack, an additional collection of four racecourses that, as its name suggests, isn't happy to simply offer more tarmac for all sorts of four-wheelers to zoom upon: it was designed with all three games in mind. Two of the new tracks zig and zag just like Grand Prix likes it, while the other two propose big oval shapes sure to keep any and all Thunder Alley enthusiasts happy. Even Apocalypse Road racers get their due. Mostly.
AUTODROME SIMARD-LALUMIÈRE
(Yes, a buddy of mine and I forked over some cash in exchange for the honor of naming this track that's very much shaped like the Canadian Grand Prix circuit located on an island right next to Montreal. I mean, as Canucks, how could we not?)
One of the two Thunder Alley-first tracks, the Autodrome gets right to the point. You want wide? You want fast? You've got it—but don't get too comfortable. The road surprises racers with several 3-to-1 and then 1-to-3 switch points that'll rain chaos on your orderly group of little cars.
It's got a discreet squiggle to satisfy basic Grand Prix requirements, adding a bit of finesse to an otherwise roaring experience. Alas, no accommodations for Apocalypse Road have been worked into the layout, so you'll have to rustle up your own.
I must also point out that the gray texture applied to the track itself does look good, except when it makes it difficult to read individual spaces in a sector.
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| Is that one or two spaces in those corner sectors? What about the bottom sectors leading into the corner? |
And since you're asking, yes, this is the one and only Canadian track in the entire system. So far, most of them have been located in the USA. Of the non-American speedways, three (!!) of them are in Spain, one in Ireland, one in England, one in South Korea, one in Mexico, and one in, well, Atlantis.
RICHEY RACEWAY
Another pedal-to-the-metal experience, Richey Raceway nevertheless manages to slow down horde after horde of mechanical beasts by virtue of its unforgiving funnels. A 3-space sector tightens into a 2-space sector, then a 1-space bottleneck, before opening up again through a reverse 2- and 3-space sequence that really messes up even the most well-intentioned pack.
The Grand Prix/Apocalypse Road carve-outs are more extensive this time around and work rather well, though some graphic design choices will sometimes create contradictory interpretations as to what constitutes a space. Apocalypse Road is once more mysteriously left out, even though the board offers plenty of space for those rugged markings.
TRIMPERIAL RACEWAY
The only track in this new pack that clearly displays its Grand Prix DNA, the Trimperial Raceway goes first and foremost for those twisty bottlenecks that are delightful to puzzle out when you're playing Grand Prix or Apocalypse Road (thanks to the miracle of conditional linking). Those kinds of tracks give no quarter when it comes to Thunder Alley, however, in that whoever squeezes first in that narrow corridor will become difficult to dislodge.
The center section is dedicated to Apocalypse Road, with everything road warriors have come to expect from a speedway that shows no fear.
CARLA HORGER MEMORIAL SPEEDWAY
Named in honor of co-designer and wife Carla who passed away last year, this is ultimately the one true multi-game track: some Thunder Alley, some Grand Prix and an Apocalypse Road corner all rolled into one. (While the opposite corner serves as a launching pad only, never to be touched again.)
Despite its busy appearance, the track never actually gets into crossover shenanigans the way the Tieran Raceway or the Essendarium have done in the past. There are various points where different games will go different ways, but everything's clear enough not to spark any of those traditional boardgame-fueled bar fights.
And I am thankful for the design intention that ended up trapping Apocalypse Road vehicles in that tight corner, never to escape; otherwise, on a track this expansive, targets would have grown few and far between.
This most recent pack bolsters the collection all the way up to 24 tracks—enough to run entire seasons for years to come, for all three games.
Because of the recent death of Jeff Horger, the other co-designer, the future of the system is currently unknown. But should this be the last hurrah of a much-heralded system that has brought me and many others endless joy and excitement over the past decade, it would already be an amazing legacy.
Thank you for brightening our lives, Carla and Jeff.
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