Which Tubs?

It was quite scary, yesterday.
We rode with retro track bikes on the wooden track in Büttgen, Germany.
Home track in Apeldoorn (NL, also wood) is usually no problem, because it's less steep.
It seems that old rubber (tubulars, 10, 20 maybe even 30 years old) is not really suitable. Compount maybe too hard,

I don't believe this. The problem these days is with newer non-carbon black tires--- Contis move back to carbon black with "Red Chili" is a great move forward. Fresh tires don't have better grip. Old rubber is fine unless its cracked or the casings rotted. The rubber thread just needs to be activated a bit. Rough them up with some pumice and degrease with isopropanol--- if the tires are fresh out of storage it might be good to give the sidewalls a bit of liquid latex (which contains ammonia which is a rubber solvent so be careful not to get carried away as too much can do more harm than good).

If the casings are still good but the rubber is cracked one can even--- if these are high quality track tires--- replace the thread.

Its important. I think, to keep in mind that some tires are better suited to some courses than others--- this also applies to road tires used on the road as well.