Starting Peg heights - help me out Track Guru's

Commercial tracks.
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Go Bubba Go
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Starting Peg heights - help me out Track Guru's

Post by Go Bubba Go »

By way of intro, I am much more familiar with cars than tracks at this point.

I created a posting under Planning, Preps & Running the Race related to a rules question regarding cars "leaning over" the starting pegs.

My plea for help with the post here is this: Do you "Track Guru's" know what the height of the starting pegs are for the various brands of tracks?

Any info is better than what I have now (none). I'm not even sure of the pin height on our Pack track :oops: . Lots to measure when she's put together this year.
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Re: Starting Peg heights - help me out Track Guru's

Post by TAL »

Our pegs stick up about 2" higher than the track surface...

Track surface at pegs is about 45 to 46" high...

That is on our piantedosi freedom track...
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Re: Starting Peg heights - help me out Track Guru's

Post by Darin McGrew »

Our starting pegs stand just over 2" above the rolling surface, but we designed it that way. The top edge of the block in our kit stands just under 2" above the rolling surface with the wheels mounted. But we built our own track, and use different kits from most other groups. YMMV.
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Re: Starting Peg heights - help me out Track Guru's

Post by DerbyAddict »

BestTrack starting pin is 2" above track.
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Go Bubba Go
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Re: Starting Peg heights - help me out Track Guru's

Post by Go Bubba Go »

TAL wrote:Our pegs stick up about 2" higher than the track surface...

Track surface at pegs is about 45 to 46" high...

That is on our piantedosi freedom track...
As a follow up our older wooden Piantedosi track (had it up last weekend) had the same peg dimension (1-3/4" above center rail, 2" above track surface).
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Re: Starting Peg heights - help me out Track Guru's

Post by GILLS »

Our track is a Quality Track, and the starting pegs stick up only 1 1/4" above the laneguide.
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Re: Starting Peg heights - help me out Track Guru's

Post by DERBYMAN »

Our track pins our 1.5 in above the track and we state that in our rules
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Re: Starting Peg heights - help me out Track Guru's

Post by 2kids10horses »

Ours are low, really, low! Only an inch! And that can really be an issue with some designs. We don't have pins, we have plexiglass tabs. (Or some kind of clear plastic tabs.)

I have no idea who made the track. To me, it looks like a homemade one, but I was told it was purchased from, "a company".

Two years ago, we made a car with a raised nose. I was our first attempt at making a really fast car. I bought a 'tips' manual off the internet, and it advocated the 'cheater bar'. The design where the front is cut outm and a wire is used to hold the car on the starting pin. Or, undercut the nose to try to take advantage of the early drop effect. We undercut the nose. (I don't think it had any effect! The start mechanism is solinoid driven. We have abandoned that design.) The bottom of our nose was 7/8 inch above the track. We were barely able to stage it!

We did not know we were so close to the limit. We hadn't measured the tab, but we 'assumed' it would be high enough to catch any part of the block on wheels! Wrong! (Never 'assume') Perhaps, 'assume' is the wrong term. 'Stupid' comes to mind! We were just plain lucky that the car staged properly!

The track has difficulty staqing certain types of cars: The one we designed (with nose undercut), boat fronts, bannana fronts, ect.

What I've had to allow is for the nose of the car to ride up on the starting tab. This is ok as long as the front wheels stay on the track. Yes, those cars get 'a head start'. But, they lose PE. It's a trade-off.

Make no mistake, those low start tabs have been a problem.

You know, the more I think about it, the worse it seems... I wonder if the solinoid can actually propel those cars whose front ends are resting on the top of the tap down the track? Errg!

Fortunately, the cars that do that (boats, bannanas) have never been competitive, speed wise. They're usually built for 'Show'.

2K10H
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