Our pack recently got a Piantedosi Oars track for our last race. It is very well built and probably the best wooden track availble. Like MaxV, what I don't like about it is the start gate design. The start gate is a board with the start pegs mounted to it and the board sticks out from under the track on both sides. A couple of rubberbands hold the gate closed and the start gate operator must twist the board quickly to release the cars.MaxV wrote:I have watched races run on a Piantedosi track. It certainly is a nice track from the wood surface perspective, but the starting gate needs to be redesigned. I witnessed a car 'launched into space' when the gate handle was twisted and then released quickly.
The problem with this design is that it requires the start gate operator to drop the gate at the same speed each time and do so quickly. If they go too slow, the cars can actually start rolling before the gate has cleared the surface of the track. The cars that touch higher on the start peg will actually start moving ahead of those cars that touch lower on their start pegs. In our race I saw a lot of variation in the speed of the start gate operation, which I believe altered the results of a tight race. We had one occurrence where the start gate went down way too slow and one of the car's underbody got caught on the top of the start peg and jumped its lane. I mentioned the problem to the race coordinator, but we still ended up with inconsistency.
With some better training of the start gate operator, much of this issue can be prevented, but I believe a better design would be the best solution. A design that has a latch mechanism and is spring loaded to quickly open the gate with little effort on the part of the start gate operator would help ensure that the pegs move quickly out of the way before the cars can start rolling. As we used to say in the Navy, it needs to be sailor proofed.
One last note, and this is not a negative thing. It would be nice if they offered a prefinished track. With their expertise in the manufacturing of rowing oars, I'm sure they can probably do a better finish job than most organizations could. Of course, it is cheaper to get it unfinished and finish it yourself, so having an unfinished version is good.
I'd like to hear form other people on their impressions of this track as it may help others in their purchasing decision.