A review by Robert Thurman

A review of Heroes of Short Track Racing;

Big things can come in small packages. Heroes of Short Track Racing is one of these. If you like racing games you will be happy. If you are a fan of local Saturday night oval racing you will be ecstatic.

Local oval track racing is a unique and varied experience. Almost every track is different in many ways. The classes and rules are different. The points and heat races and main event grid positioning are different at almost every track.

Heroes use a “highlight” style movement system that works perfectly for this type of event. Every turn is one lap. Not every car attempts to pass or defend every lap. So we can just focus on the events of that single lap. This make the game play move along at a steady pace.

It is a similar movement system to the excellent Red White and Blue Racin by Plaay Games. However Heroes adds a few extras that allow a tremendous amount of fine tuning to the driver/car.

Here is the basic game play; Roll the green Action die, check car’s Action # roll for movement, resolve pass attempt (if any), check next car. That’s it. Move lap marker and start next turn.

The movement system is very simple and there are optional rules that can be added if you want. (More on those later). You line the cars up for a heat or main event in any way you like. In a line, rows of 4-6, whatever. All we are doing is keeping track of the running order of the cars. (You can download and print out and tape together a play mat from the games website).

You roll the green “Action” D10 and set that aside. This will determine which cars will attempt to gain positions this turn. Let’s say the number is “7”. A car will have from 3-5 action numbers just below its picture. Starting with the car in 2nd spot you will check the cars for a “7” action number; this car will attempt to pass the car in front of it. If it has a “7” you will roll the two black D10 dice.

You roll a 57. On the lower left of the card is the movement chart. It will give you a result between 0 and 3.

0 means nothing happens, go check the next car, 1 means you can attempt to pass the car in front of you, 2 means you automatically pass the car in front, you swap the cars positions, 3 means you automatically pass the car in front and then can attempt to pass the car ahead of you as well.

Your 57 results in a 1, you can attempt to pass. You take the single black D10 and roll it, you get a 3. On the right bottom of the card are a Passing and a Defending rating. Your Passing rating is 7+3=10. The defending rating of the car ahead of you is 10, you needed an 11 to pass, tough luck, maybe next lap! Now check the next car and repeat for all cars with a 7 for an action number. Use a marker of some kind to mark off one lap, reroll the green Action die and continue.

Using the Action number means you only check on 20-30% of the cars in the race each lap. So things proceed quickly.

Roll the green Action die, check car’s Action #, roll for movement, resolve pass attempt (if any), next car.

You can do qualifying, run 2 heats and run a main event in 60 minutes. 90 minutes for your first couple of games.

Now let us look at the optional rules. These can be used to duplicate conditions for your own local track, be it real or fictional.

Passing made easier in heat races; on both dirt and pavement the track conditions change during the event. Dirt tracks tend to dry out, and at night the pavement can cool off making both types of tracks have less traction during the main event.

Leader Can Pull Away; this option allows him to pull away a space. Following cars have to make a successful pass attempt to close up.

Charging or Backing off; try to pass two cars at a time but increase chances of losing positions. Also going slower but increasing defending rating.

Changing Track Conditions; normal, wide or narrow groove ratings change when a 1 or 10 is rolled on action die. Then roll the black dice for a track condition change. These setting can also be implemented to duplicate you local track configuration. Some tracks are narrow and hard to pass on. Some tracks are wide with several grooves.

Hometown track advantage; add to passing and/or defending rating as needed to certain drivers.

Overall this is a really well designed racing game system. It is easy to understand and play. The possible expansion of the game is almost limitless. If you can get qualifying and results from your local track making a card set should be fairly easy.

Local ovals tracks are an unusual form of motorsport, weekly races at the same track with the same drivers. 24 cars is the norm for a main event and over the course of a season there may be a total of only 32 different drivers in the main event. Usually it is only the A main that gets points and money. Some tracks have an A and B main classes with track titles for both classes.

After qualifying the cars are split into heat races of 12 cars. Or they are evenly distributed as much as possible. Positions in the heats determine starting order in the main(s).

Main event starting positions can vary. Something it is straight up the fast heat winner is on pole. Sometimes the entire field in inverted. Some places the front or the back half is inverted. Or you can set the field according to points either straight up or inverted. The combinations are almost endless.