I could care less about the money the hobby shop makes as a deciding factor in this issue... I already sell tires etc cheaper than most do.
I can appreciate that, but I think other hobby shops would have a different view point on this.
your argument that you put on a new set every two runs etc at a big race is true however that doesn't mean you can't go home and run them in practice or club racing and save fresh tires for big races. So that argument doesn't cut it... I can still get more runs out of what we have now than what will happen with softer tires. maybe at the national level it wouldn't make a difference but club racers would suffer as a result. We all know anyone who goes to national races either has sponsors or is willing to shell out the money and won't care, but club racers who pay for the sponsored drivers to have tires are the ones that will suffer. rubber tire guys would be ok but foam tire guys would suffer.
As far as foam tires go, we only get one or two runs out of tires at big races, because we cut them down to their optimal size to get the best possible performance. We could run harder compounds or cut them bigger but our performance would not be as good. So we could make them last longer if we wanted to, but for performance reasons we don't. Same logic applies to softer compounds. You could choose to run the optimal compound or choose to run a harder compound...up to you...speed v.s. longevity is always a trade-off.
In terms of local track racing, most drivers are not looking for the ultimate performance because it costs money, this applies now and would apply with softer compound tires. Some guys run harder compound tires locally so they don't wear as fast. I know that when I run rubber tires, I run a harder compound than most when racing locally just because I don't want to purchase new tires every race day.
I'm not hating I just think banning all compound is the wrong move...
I agree banning these additives creates a number of difficult issues. If there was a way to come up with a safe compound, and be able to ensure they are using only that compound, then I think this would be a great option. As I have posted before in this forum, it is my point of view that banning is easier to enforce than trying to force the use of safer compounds. I would love to be wrong in my point of view (assuming we could find a safe compound).