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Thunder Alley (THA) WBC 2024 Event Report
Updated October 18, 2024
25 Players Curt Collins II Event History
2024 Champion & Laurels
 

GM Collins II Races To The Title!

Thunder Alley returned to WBC in 2024 , 5 years after its last appearance.

The sign in table included several giveaways to add to the race atmosphere. This year included a prize wheel. Everyone who signed up got to take a spin and get a prize, everything from keychains and candy to hats and “The Box”. The Box consisted of various items collected as free giveaways at actual NASCAR events. Each heat, a random player got a board game (Lords of Waterdeep, Robo Rally, and Ice School). A jar of M&Ms went to the person who guessed closest to how many were in the jar. Surprisingly, in the third heat, one person guessed correctly at 329. I hope everyone enjoys the trinkets as much as my wife enjoys having less stuff in the house!

A very enthusiastic crowd showed up for our three Heats, the 11 winners (no double winners) made up the field of 12 Semifinalist, plus our one player that had 3 second place finishes, including one lost on a tie breaker. Of note in the Heats, we did have one race that ended due to rain. This rare event potentially ended the race before players were prepared for it to end.

The Semifinal races used Pullingers Pyramid. The track is triangle shaped like the real life Pocono. Competition was stiff, since the top two finishers advanced to the Final.

In Semifinal #1, David Wolfe, David Stiffler, Chuck Hubble, and Patrick Proksch battled for the lead. David Wolfe and Chuck Hubble traded the lead the entire race amongst 5 of their 8 cars, and they ended up with 5 of the top 6 cars between them. David Wolfe won the Semifinal, with Chuck only a point behind. Both advanced.

  1. David Wolfe: 155
  2. Chuck Hubble: 154
  3. David Stiffler: 143
  4. Patrick Proksch: 125

In Semifinal #2, Matt Fagan, Larry Jex, Billy Fellin, and Curt Collins II faced off. Billy Fellin fell behind early, only to catch back up due to a yellow flag. Larry Jex suffered a DNF from the event deck and never recovered, finishing fourth. That left the other three to fight for two spots, and during the final turn who was in and who was out changed several times. Matt Fagan secured the win, and Curt Collins came in second, largely due to having the race winning car on his team.

  1. Matt Fagan: 158
  2. Curt Collins II: 151
  3. Billy Fellin: 142
  4. Larry Jex : 126

In Semifinal #3, Mitzi Hubble, Michael Shea, Bert Schoose, and Andy Lewis raced for the last two spots in the Final. No single car dominated this race, but one team did, securing the high score in the Semifinal. Mitzi Hubble had three cars finish in the top 4 for a dominating win. Bert Schoose finished with his entire team together in fifth through eighth. He was the only player to accomplish the feat in the Semifinal. In this game, two players made up almost the entire top half of the finishing order.

  1. Mitzi Hubble: 162
  2. Bert Schoose: 151
  3. Michael Shea: 137
  4. Andy Lewis: 127

The Final was run at the Snug Harbor track found in the Thunder Alley Track Pack expansion. It was the largest field of the tournament with six players participating.

Mitzi drew pole position and started the race. It began with typical jockeying for position, but Bert Schoose found himself in the lead and in a great position at the end of the first turn. Then the first event card was pulled, and it was a pile-up. As fortune would dictate, Bert’s lead car would get the brunt of the damage and suffer enough permanent damage to guarantee that the lead car would be at minimum stuck with three fewer movement points for the remainder of the game. Others suffered damage, but nothing quite as catastrophic as Bert’s.

After the pile-up, the field began to separate a bit with no further caution before everyone's cars began to take on enough wear that pitting was beginning to look necessary. As will happen in this game, when there are several green flag turns, the pack splits up, and the game slows down a bit since when the cars are not together, the entire pack doesn’t move every turn. Of all of the competitors, it was Mitzi that looked to be in the best shape, with all three of her cars near the front where everyone else had at least one car somewhat behind the lead cars. Matt was not far behind, but only had two cars in the lead pack.

Green flag pit stops led to more fracturing of the field as some drivers pitted earlier than others, and others stayed out, electing not to pit, but suffering the movement penalty that Berts former lead car had been dealing with. Yet another green flag event had some players making the difficult decision to leave slow cars on the track, not wanting to take a turn to remove the accumulated wear. As a result, some of the lead cars were not very fast, and the lead pack grew to roughly half the cars in the race. Pitting earlier would prove to be the better decision. Both of the advantaged teams fell towards the back when they had to pit after having a slow turn or two with cars that had three or more wear points on them.

As the finish approached, it appeared that three finalists were in the best position to win the race. Chuck Hubble, with two cars up front, Curt Collins II had his entire team near the front, and David Wolfe, who had brought a couple of cars back into it after being way behind to have his entire team roughly even with Curt. The final event card was once again a green flag, meaning that there would be no caution to reset the field.

Coming to the finish line first was one of Bert's cars. Had he not suffered the damage from the pile-up earlier, perhaps he could have won this race, but he took his bad fortune in stride and even though his chances were poor for winning the game, he just went out and won the race instead.

Chuck Hubble brought one of his cars home second, but his trailing car fell to sixteenth, ending his chances of winning the game. It was his car sitting mid pack though, that decided the game. Curt had a slow car directly in front of Chuck's slow car, and his other two cars were directly behind Chuck's car. The two cars that had yet to move were the two cars with wear on them, each at a minus four to movement. When Chuck went to move his final car through, he only had cards with movement four! This would mean that since his car was unable to move, Curt's car would be able to tow his other two cars ahead on the final lap. Collectively, Curts cars would gain about ten spots on the final move of the game, thus securing the game, and the tournament!

Chuck edged David for second with the tie breaker of having a higher finishing car. After suffering severe damage, Bert Schoose still only came a couple of points away from second place after brushing aside bad fortune and pressing on. It was a valiant effort, and he will be one to watch in future years. Mitzi and Matt both fell victim to a long green flag run. Had there been a late yellow, some of the lead cars would have been forced to pit and the door would have been open for one of them to take the win.

Final Race results:

  1. Curt Collins II: 116
  2. Chuck Hubble: 109 (Highest finishing car: Second)
  3. David Wolfe: 109 (Highest finishing car: Third)
  4. Bert Schoose: 107
  5. Mitzi Hubble: 96
  6. Matt Fagan: 93

It is notable that in 40% of all Thunder Alley games played this year at WBC, the winner of the race was not the winner of the game. You don’t need to have the first place car if you have your entire team up front.

 
2024 Laurelists Repeating Laurelists: 0
Hubble, Chuck Wolfe, David Schoose, Bert Hubble, Mitzi Fagan, Matt
2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th
Races start in Timberstone. GM Curt Collins enjoying a game during the Heats.
Bert Shcoose on way to Final against Chairman Andy Lewis. Finalists with GM Curt Collins II.
GM  Curt Collins II [1st Year]