Expansion review — New Tracks for Grand Prix

Are We There Yet?

Designers: Carla & Jeff Horger

Player count: 2-11

Publisher: GMT Games

While it only took one year for GMT Games to publish additional tracks for their NASCAR racing title Thunder Alley, fans of the F1 incarnation of that system—GrandPrix—had to wait six years before they could start burning rubber on brand new racetracks.
Were those four additional circuits worth the long wait? You bet your chassis, they were.

AND THEY’RE OFF

The aptly named “Expansion Tracks for Grand Prix” package offers four new tracks on two mounted, double-sided boards. The whole thing ships in a big ziplock bag, with a reference card that lists a sprinkling of special rules for each track.

Overall, the tracks in this new batch feel much tighter than the original four. Whereas the number of bottlenecks (one-space sectors where cars can’t pass each other) averaged 11 in the base game, they’ve now grown to a spine-tingling 18!

Let’s take a quick look at each of these fresh offerings.

With its 11 bottlenecks, Tieran Raceway not only feels looser than its brethren, but also more easily adaptable to the other two games in the system (Thunder Alley and Apocalypse Road). That’s because it offers two overlapping circuits—an oval and a road course—that can also connect to form a longer, combined course. Each option comes with its own prescription as to number of laps, depending on the game you’re playing.
If you’re sticking to Grand Prix, I recommend racing on the combined course; anything else doesn’t quite feel like a full meal.

Just about as loose as the previous entry (what with its 13 bottlenecks), Knight Kennedy Speedway promises one harrowing hairpin turn through which even Overtake cards cannot be played—ensuring that there’s absolutely no way to pass another car until the pack unspools in the straightaway that follows. It won’t affect your games all that much, but when it does, I guarantee you’ll remember it.

Circuit de Chevas might appear to offer a typical Grand Prix experience, but with 21 bottlenecks, it’s tighter than even the tightest of the original tracks (Circuito Dr. Tomas Gomez, with 16 bottlenecks). This configuration affords stragglers much fewer opportunities to catch up to the pack; on a track like this, there’s only so much a Clean Air card can accomplish.

The Leviathan is the king of tight circuits, with a whopping 25 bottlenecks. No special rules required: you’ll feel this one in your bones. Seriously, you have to play it to believe it. It can get a bit frustrating at times (make sure you play those neutral cars like there’s no tomorrow) but when you do manage to get ahead, it’s like watching the sun rise.

PIT STOP

As much fun as I’m having with the new tracks, I’m doing so playing Grand Prix. Sure, you can give the other two games a go on those same circuits, but your mileage may vary.

In the case of Thunder Alley, tightness becomes the main impediment. Original Grand Prix tracks were a bit more forgiving in this regard, but the new boards prevent any significant lateral maneuvering from taking place—which is a staple in TA. While constrained situations become fun puzzles to unravel using the conditional linking rule in GP, you can’t do that with TA. So unless you can whip out a leader movement card at just the right time, you’ll keep pushing the car(s) blocking your way, and sometimes right into the next bottleneck.

When it comes to Apocalypse Road, the fact that the game also uses conditional linking allows you to navigate the new tracks without too much trouble. But multiple bottlenecks mean much fewer targets within range, and that might take away from the intended experience.
More importantly, the new tracks lack a rough section and a jump section, which come into play on 1 in 5 Movement Event cards and are a big part of the AR fun. Also, no chute from where to launch new cars!

To be fair, in the entire system, no tracks outside of Apocalypse Road itself sport those very specific features, and rightly so. But I was hoping GMT would print small cardboard markers players could use to decide where such sections start and end on non-AR tracks.
Something like these homemade ones:

CHECKERED FLAG

We can finally run a respectable season of Grand Prix and never play the same track twice! Each new circuit gives off its own vibes, and they’re all a blast to zoom around.

And I’d be remiss not to mention how good the new boards look—especially The Leviathan, whose blue hues should stop many a passerby in their tracks.

  

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