Derby Talk

here are pics of ongoing pinewood derby starting system.
Each "driver" releases his/her car independently and tries to release on the green light (avoiding a red light)
the solenoides should have been bigger (more pull) as these only pull 12 oz.
The "cams" that the solenoids are connected to have an adjustable stop so both solenoides are adjusted with plunger movement the same amount.
Alot of work but it has been fun.
Now on to the finish line tower etc.

Wow that looks like it was a lot of work.

I think I'll stick with my ideas of looking for off-the-shelf hardware for my gates.

I'm leaning heavily towards using pneumatic solenoids and rams to drop and raise the gates. I'd never have the patience to do all that wood working...

I would love to see a short clip of it in action. It looks really cool. I can imagine boys spending hours 'drag racing' on a track with a starter like that. Are you going to configure this gate to be modular so a conventional start can be done, or will this be the only way to start the cars on your track? Also, how many lanes will it be?

Track is onlly 2 lanes.
If I get time, I plan on adding a switch so both gates open together like a conventional start gate.