Track certification has been around as long as road certification. Back in the beginning ultradistance people were setting “records” on tracks, and Ted Corbitt and Ken Young cooperated with RRTC in developing track measurement policies.
No SCPF applies to tracks.
All of our RRTC methods of measurement are less accurate than those generally used to lay out the track, but what other option do we have? If an original measurement document from the track constructor can be found it’s likely to be closer to the truth than is a calibrated bike.
There are certainly valid objections to our “certification” of tracks, but the benefits outweigh the disadvantages, as least as far as the record-keepers are concerned.
Tracks can be puzzling. I went to a seminar in Warsaw in 1989, and we were out on this Polish track doing measurements. People were scratching their heads, unable to make sense of their data. Finally someone mentioned that the track had a 500 meter length, not 400 m. Everything fell into place then.