This past Sunday, while “reviewing the troops” set up in autocross grid formation, I heard this odd scraping noise.  In preparation for an autocross run, one of the competitors was doing some scraping activity on the tires in the tight confines of his car’s wheel wells.  He had the stickier R-compound tires racing slicks (thanks Henry!) with a bunch of gravel stuck to the rubber.  He was scraping them off with a product he made.  His solution was to make a product to ease the removal of those pesky rocks from sticky race rubber - even in the recesses of a tough to reach wheel well.

Hoosier tire stuffed tightly in a wheel well

Tom Holt came up with this idea & product.  Besides being a dedicated autocross competitor, he is the inventor and fabricator of the Rocksoff Tire Scraper.  It’s a simple but effective solution to an issue that many racers don’t know how to deal with.  His website says it best.

You wouldn’t drive in the marbles on the course.  Why take them with you to the starting line???

The Rocksoff tool at rest

This is an ingenius item that could come in handy.

Tom\'s ride on grid

Moments before the next run

You see the seriousness of this Z within the cockpit.

A no-nonsense cockpit

His current ride is a highly modified 1974 Datsun 260Z shell.  It contains a mix and match collection of the best parts from most all of the model year Z cars from the 80’s & 90’s.  His “Rocksoff Special” is a purpose-built machine that means business, as you can see.

Rocksoff logo on his hood

He also had a major enclosed trailer to carry this baby.  It was quite the setup…

Tom\'s trailer setup is on the right

This group of motorsport individuals is a great variety of individuals.  Varietal individuality is what makes Racing Ready interesting!

Dan