Another wood vs. aluminum question...

[Mr.T]

I have seen several great threads on wood vs. aluminum tracks.

Has anyone done any serious testing on equivalent wood and aluminum tracks?

Our pack has a 4-lane, 32 foot Piantedosi wood track that we're very happy with, and I'd like to consider replacing it in the next couple of years with a Piantedosi aluminum track.

Several comments have been made in this forum about using the same type of track that is used in a district derby and about aluminum tracks being faster that wood tracks. Currently, 2 Piantedosi wood tracks (one is ours) are used for our district PWD. We run time-based qualifier heats on each track and then take the top 6 finishers from each track for time-based finals heats on one track.

Assuming that aluminum tracks really are "faster" (I have no experience with them), would our boys be at a disadvantage on a wood track if they had qualified for the district derby on an aluminum track?

Thanks for your insights.

[GILLS]

Mr. T,
The gentleman that invented Derbyworx line of tools has a website at www.derbyworx.com, an he has a section called tale of the tape were he compares your track to the aluminum best track and lists the results.
Look at it and it may answer your question, and welcome to the forum.

[Mr.T]

Thanks for the link and the welcome, GILLS.

When I reviewed the infoat the link, it was not a comparison of tracks with the same geometry, like a Piantedosi wood compared to a Piantedosi aluminum.

Any other info out there?

Thanks again.

[mrvoltz]

Do they actually qualify by time, or is it just your top 6?
Most of the time it's just the top racers, in that case they are at no disadvantages, if anything they might run faster in the aluminum track than on the wood. I still use wood, it's as much a craftsmen thing as it is an expense thing for me. If a wood track is finished right it is pretty fast anyway. On my 35' track, 30' actual race surface, we turn in time as low as 2.7446 seconds. Much faster than that and there is no time to enjoy the race.