I found the configuration setting in the documentation that will force phpMyAdmin to automatically track tables during and after creation. It is:

 $cfg['Servers'][$i]['tracking_version_auto_create'] boolean

And the default value is ‘false’. I updated:

 /var/www/www.progclub.org/pcma/config.inc.php

With the line:

  // JE: 2011-09-07: force tracking
  $cfg['Servers'][$i]['tracking_version_auto_create'] = true;