I'll chime in from a noob perspective.
I started racing last year with shane and the guys at marcca. I raced on rubber until I left madison in march. I now live in georgia and just started back at Toys for Boys in Atlanta. TFB only runs 19t foam. I am not happy about the situation. I am still learning and still break something every day I run. I was getting 4 weeks on a set of sorex 24's. I bought my first set of jacos last weekend and trashed the fronts within 5 minutes. I am at a point where I need time on the track a lot more than I need the fastest setup. I would much rather be running on rubber and learning how to drive than constantly worrying about destroying my tires every time I get on the track.
I am going to have to learn how to not hit things very quickly or get out of the sport due to the cost.
Every club or LHS should run a rubber sportsman class. When we are ready to move up to the faster setups and classes we willl. Slower is faster until we can keep from being marshalled 10 times every race.
mm