Level R Thunder Alley Beginner’s Guide

Level R Thunder Alley Beginner’s Guide by Lale77

First of all, I will try to keep this as short as possible as I am aware that many people don’t like to read much. Since I don’t consider myself as a top driver every added suggestion is welcome. What I try to do here is to give some advice to beginners on how to drive successfully, which does not mean winning, on Thunder Alley.

Since it’s the most driven track these suggestions go mostly for SUNBAY SPEEDWAY, but do apply also to the other oval tracks.

Let’s start:

Thunder Alley is a game mode based on drafting. While drafting you reach much higher speeds than you could while driving alone. So this makes this game mode a little kind of a team game.
For example, while driving the rookie with no tools, a good driver makes a lap in 0:59:9xx, a normal driver in 1.00.2xx. While drafting in a group of only 2 people, for that same lap you need 0:58:5xx seconds or less. As you can see, 2 drafting are almost one and half seconds faster per lap then a good driver alone.

Absolutely overtake ONLY on the left side of the track, make room for overtakers moving to the right.

First Curve:

Usually you don’t win a race in the first curve or lap, so be cool and try not to cause accidents.
The “trick” is very simple.

If you start left side, stay left until you have overtaken all of the others. Stay left until you are clearly away from second position and can move to the right without hitting the other car. Use the mirror (sometimes the race starts with no mirrors, so just press M. Make sure the chat is not active though because then you would just type m in the chat box.) and arrows to orientate.

If you start on the right side, stay where you are until all others have passed, then move on to the left and start overtaking yourself. If there’s a gap big enough to move left safely then of course move to the left.

If you start in first position, please DO NOT move right immediately. Watch the arrow(s) and move right when the one overtaking you is near (arrow will turn red). This way you avoid taking the draft from third position away causing to slow down the whole process around the first curve and adding potential risk of accidents.

Overtaking:
As mentioned above, OVERTAKE ONLY LEFT. The reason here is to avoid people not knowing where to go when they get overtaken left and right at the nearly same time.

If you are in a larger group of people overtaking each other, ALWAYS remember that you can STEP OFF OF THE GAS PEDAL to avoid ramming someone in front of you from behind and thus causing accidents. I have to point that out here because there are really a lot of people who do not seem to know that.

That said, while being in a larger group of drivers, your expected behavior should be like this:
Overtake the whole group on the left, STAY left IF the one behind you is far away (+15 meters) and move to the right when he is near (red arrow). Avoid to take the draft away to those behind you because the only result is the group being slower and having more risk of accidents. Once you are on the right, stay right until the last of the group has passed. Again, if he is really far away (25+ meters) you can move to the left again and “jump” him in the queue.

ENTERING PITSTOPS:

If you aren’t driving alone, you should let the other(s) know that you want/need to refuel. You can set a key for that in the options menu of the game. Maybe saying “<<< <<<<”

Enter the pits, not faster than 85 (the real limit is 86, at 87 you get a drive through penalty) stop in the green marked space, fuel up and restart. Pay attention not to exceed 85 while exiting.

EXITING PITSTOPS:

There’s no real rule here, personally I stay left if there are fast cars coming from the straight. The important thing is that you just keep the exact trajectory so the faster people can predict you and avoid accidents.
It is also very important that when a group leaves pits and there’s another group coming from the straight, that the whole group from pit stays IN THE SAME LANE. It happend to me that a few were exiting pits, I was first of a group from the straight at over 300km/h and I had one on the right exiting pits, and the other on the left, I managed it to avoid the one going to the right because I went left, but that poor guy on the left I had no time to change side of track again so I tried to go even more left then him and I failed, I think some parts of his car are still on the tribunes. So, please, exiting pits, all on the same part of the track when there are fast cars coming.

ONE LAP DOWN:

So you had bad luck this race and the first place group is givng you a lap down ? Some advice to be fair:

Do not interfere in the competition for first place or any other who gave you one or more laps. (meaning do not draft & overtake the group) in most rooms it will be okay if you just stay BEHIND the leaders while drafting. In some rooms or events this drafting behind leaders (also called ghost drafting) is not allowed. You surely do not want to be the cause of an accident while not being even in the ranking, people will get really angry at you for that.

LAST CURVE:

So you’ve nearly done it! You’re fighting for the first position, it’s the last corner and you want to win, like everybody else does. So here is some important advice:
Do not ram people in that last curve.
Do not “leech” (staying behind until you’re sure that you will be the last to be able to overtake all the others in the group)
Do nothing that could give you an unfair advantage. Why ? Because that will be much likely the last time you raced with those same people. People remember your name, and it is much likely that you will be kicked from the room whenever you get in a room with them.

ACCIDENTS:

It’s unavoidable but they happen and there’s little you can do about it. The only thing is when you happen to crash into someone, and it doesen’t matter if he has been crashed by someone else or yourself, RELEASE IMMEDIATELY the gas, this way many times it is possible to avoid the worse. You might loose a few hundred meters but you won’t be spinning around in the green loosing thousand meters. Sometimes you can even manage it to stay perfectly on track loosing maybe 20 or 30 meters, it depends however on the situation. A good example is the following situation: You are drafting in a group of 4 people, you are on the right side waiting to be overtaken. The overtaker steers too early hitting you (accidentally) with his rear wheels on your front wheels. What happens now is up to you. If you release the gas for a bit, the not so carefull overtaker can manage it to avoid his car turning. If you stay on the gas, he won’t have a chance because you are pushing him and he will turn on himself and much likely involve you in the accident.

Be fair and you will be rewarded. Be unfair, and you can play single player forever.

That’s it for now. I’m sure i forgot some things so of course I will appreciate additions or changes from the more experienced players to add or edit in my post.

Hope this helps to make the thunder alley ovals a better place for everybody.