Let's Go Balloon Racing - status report

After testing this game a few times now on Tabletop Simulator, I'm happy to report that I think it's actually working quite well!

The race algorithm makes for some dramatic swings of fate, and after a few tweaks I think I've honed in on some details to make the game work as intended. Here's a current rundown of the rules:

Let's Go Balloon Racing!

SETUP
1. Lay out balloon cards (or balloon board, perhaps)
2. Deal 1 Effect card to each balloon
3. Deal 1 Stowaway card to each player

GAME ROUND
1. Players simultaneously choose a balloon, then place their player cube under that balloon
2. From left to right, activate the effect on each balloon that has at least 1 player cube under it, then move the player cube onto the balloon card (adjust the balloon's altitude if necessary) 
3. Shuffle and deal 4 Movement cards. For each movement card, move the indicated balloon:
High altitude (0-2 cubes): 6 spaces
Mid altitude (3-4 cubes): 4 spaces
Low altitude (5+ cubes): 2 spaces
4. Shuffle all Effect cards and deal a new one to each balloon

RACE END / GAME END
At the end of each round, if any balloon has crossed the finish line, do the following:
1. Any player with a Stowaway card matching that balloon reveals their card and adds 1 of their player cubes to that balloon
2. Count all player cubes on all balloons that have crossed the finish line - if any player has a clear plurality, then they win the game. If there is a tie, then the game continues. Check for a winner again the next time any balloon crosses the finish line.

Balloons that have crossed the finish line are "locked in" -- they no longer get effect cards, and cannot be the target of effects

I have tried to keep the Effect cards such that play can be simultaneous, and the effects won't create any decisions or turn order issues when resolving. Currently some of the effect cards will situationally have no effect at times, and as my friend Mohan put it, I'd rather they all have an effect every time, so there ay be room for improvement there.

The next thing I intend to try are "Alone bonuses" -- either structurally, or per card, there could be an additional or augmented effect if you are the only player to play on a balloon. Since this would avoid turn order issues, these affects could target particular cubes, or allow for moving cubes from balloon to balloon, which I'd like to see more of.

It's not terribly thematic, but for the next test I think I'll try a standard Alone bonus of "move 1 of your cubes from this balloon to any other balloon, or from any other balloon to this balloon" and just see how it goes.

As for the Effect cards, here's what I've got at the moment:

BURST OF WIND: Move all balloons in MID altitude 2 spaces

GUST OF WIND: Move all balloons in LOW altitude 3 spaces

CUT THE ROPE: Return 1 cube at random from this balloon to its owner

GRAPPLING HOOK: Move the nearest balloon(s) in each direction to this space

HEAD WIND: Move all balloons in the lead (1st place) BACKWARD 3 spaces

TAIL WIND: Move all balloons in the rear (last place) FORWARD 3 spaces

UPDRAFT: This balloon moves as if it were 1 level HIGHER this round

STICK TOGETHER: Add 1 more cube to this balloon

SHOTGUN APPROACH: Add 1 cube to all other balloons in this o adjacent spaces (do not trigger effects)

PICK UP THE PACE (x5): Add this card to the movement deck (there's one of these for each color)

I had 2 others, but I think I am going to cut them because I don't think I like the dynamic they bring to the game:
KAMAKAZI: Discard all cubes on this balloon (including cubes placed this turn)

SUICIDE MISSION: Each opponent discards 1 cube from each balloon in this and adjacent spaces. Discard the cube you placed this turn.

With the exception of those cuts, I'm pretty happy with the other effects, except sometimes they end up being null -- for example, Burst of Wind and Gust of Wind in the first turn of the game are pretty useless, as none of the balloons probably have enough cubes on them to drag them down into the lower altitudes. Mohan suggested perhaps replacing those with "all balloons with the most cubes on them..." and "all balloons with the fewest cubes on them..." for example. that way they'd always have some effect.

I'm interested in more ideas for effect cards, if you have some, put them in the comments!