Which Trackmate System?

I use the DP2000 it was cheaper

I had a DP2000 and sold it to a teacher doing school racing in the midwest.
I now have two DP3000s one for home and one for the road.
I agree with Jeff, the additional data helps enormously for tuning.
as with any drag racing, if you are not hooking up at the beginning hit, you are spinning tires and losing valuable time.
for rudimentary timing, no bells or whistles, SlotDragon isn't too expensive.
I used one of those for sometime and they are about flawless, although limited.
there is at least one host track on Nitro that uses SlotDragon.

pointers! ? LOL
I have made several tracks using good flat, straight boards of various widths. depending on how wide the track itself is.
also, the length of each section is determined by several factors. what vehicle are you going to transport in, what length is available in that regard.
I have made 8 foot sections, 6 foot sections and 5 foot sections depending on different requirements. I have made about 6 sets, each different in some regard over the years.
OK, so flat straight planks to which I attach 1 X 2 or 1 X 3 strips on both sides to allow room underneath for all the wiring.
I extend the strips 3 or so inches beyond one end of the plank so that is my joiner with screws to the next section.
I have tried various ways of conducting current to the finish line via jumpers for each section and this track, I have used heavy gauge extension cords because you only need three wires.
one for each controller station and the third for the common. there fore you never get polarity mixed up when joining the sections and possibly causing shorts circuits.
on my 1/8 mile at home, I have two 8 gauge and one 4 gauge fine strand Monster Speaker wire for the jumpers.
these can be used with various connectors, like for vehicle trailers and I am sure there are other industrial grade components that can be used.
at one time I simply used bus bars and screwed the wires in place upon set up, but not having them properly marked I would sometimes cross polarity and the first test with a controller and car would fry something.
so, fuses are a good idea too! LOL
you want to keep your sensor wires solid state, so any that are "ganged" together need to be on the same plank.
try to keep the sensor wires away from the electric wires to avoid false reading in the timing system. this simply reduces the chances of false reading on the timing system. induction from on wire to a parallel wire is quite easy to induce!
you cannot keep the sensor wires completely away from electric wires, so they should cross only where necessary.
this described set up requires banquet tables or such to be set up on.
folks make portable tracks that have folding legs of some sort. I have a bunch of cheap plastic saw horses if an occasion arise where I won't have access to tables or such.
I do not recommend setting up track on the ground. it WILL get damaged by some klutz!
shut down is another subject for another day and I sincerely hope that other folks here with different ideas share them.
perhaps, you can hybrid a set up using various ideas from different people.

I have always bought custom manufactured track.
I have Wizzard, which I have used for several drag strips.
I also have Maxx Trax.
both have rails installed, so I cannot answer that question properly.
this is a question that comes up from time to time from folks wanting to route their own track.
it is best if someone who HAS routed their own track answer that question.
seems to me, some type of metal "stitching" or "staple" has been used.
some folks have used round wire and there are in depth discussions, somewhere, about the use of that.

I hope I haven't further confused the issue.

I am sure that all the rails are steel.