Mouse Race Track

[Dave Novak]

A charity group I'm part of does a crawfish boil every spring with several raffels, "games", etc. intended to raise money. I've been asked to build a mouse track for races, which I'd never even heard of until last night. I'm working out the details in my mind, but the part I'm most perplexed by is the opening gate. How would you build something that simultaneously starts the race on each track. Here's a picture I found on the web to help visualize what I'm talking about. Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

[Lee Schierer]

I suspect the comb like device in the lower left of the photo is the starting gate. It probably fits in a slot through the back near the start.

[Paul F Franklin]

I picture a dowel rod run from top to bottom, with a flap on each level, so a quarter turn of the dowel flips all the flaps out of the way at once....