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What happens when you are highly motivated and extremely resourceful? When you are Blake Wilkey you form insane goals and work day and night till you achieve them. His latest dream was to build a legitimate trophy truck level off-road racer that resembled or looked like a traditional VW Baja Bug. With the Trophy Truck Baja Bug just recently completed, Wilkey and his partner Method Race Wheels revealed the finished product with a photoshoot and press release shot at the King Of The Hammers.
Wilkey has dubbed his newest exotic off-road racer “Jaws” to keep it in line with his uniquely personal running shark theme. Blake’s shark den stable includes the Megalodon (V8 Baja Bug), Slug Shark (a Class 11 VW), Hammerhead (Jeep XJ Cherokee), Baby Shark (Polaris RZR), and a fleet of support vehicles.
Blake is the quintessential blue-collar hero who made his way from an ironworker to a well known social media personality that is crushing it on the regular. Amassing a cult following of almost 300,000 followers on his @blakewilkey357 instagram page, Wilkey’s antics have racked up millions of views and can be seen in compelling original videos like SoCalxShred, Mini Boat Mafia, Havasu Assault, Urban Assault, Urban Assault 2 Las Vegas, and Country Club Assault.
You can also find him in various features with the Hoonigans, racing against Cleetus McFarland at the Freedom Factory, or tune into his Shreddy Lyfe Youtube Channel.
Back in the early part of 2020, Wilkey decided he was going to build and race a Class 11 VW. Thirty days later, they arrived at the Mint 400 with a brand new car, started the event, and placed 2nd on the podium. It is with this same mentality and motivation that Blake and his best friend Kevin Butts from Quixotic Motorsports formed the plans for the Jaws Trophy Truck. They put pen to paper in 2019 and over the course of the next year, Kevin and Blake invested nearly three hundred hours just in design time drawing on the computer. The video below explains all of the intricate details of modeling in the virtual space that helps streamline the labor when it comes to actual fabrication.
The first metal was cut in October of 2020 with Precision Laser Tube out of Las Vegas handling the bulk of materials. Kevin’s tedious preparation exported all of the work onto a thumb drive which allowed Precision to hand over pallets of precisely laser-cut materials ready for assembly. Cal West Manufacturing was another source for specialized radius bent tubing critical to achieving the main shape of the VW Bug shell.
Not including the steel tube chassis, and consumables it takes to machine and fabricate this all together, Wilkey assembled nearly $200,000 in hard parts to complete this build and make the Jaws Trophy Truck Baja Bug a competitive beast. With Blake Wilkey’s laid-back personality, it is no wonder he has become a popular ambassador for a huge list of A-list companies.
“I have been dreaming and putting in effort for the last eight years. It really started to come together when all of my partners got behind this project.”
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Back in April of 2021, Off Road Xtreme went up to the Shark Den to see how the build was coming along and chatted with Blake and Kevin as they were working to build something from nothing. At this point there was two trophy truck baja bugs still at the chassis fabrication stage just getting fitted together. Assembly was a long ways away. Keep reading and watching to see the progress continue.
Off Road Xtreme: You have come a long way in a short time Blake. I remember you were always the hardest working dude in the short course pits. It is obvious to anyone close to you that you are still on the gas and working hard. What has been the biggest challenge in the latest build?
Blake Wilkey: It is definitely time management. I have a very busy schedule day to day and then add all of the events into the mix. I am traveling all over the country to things like UTV Takeover and racing the Freedom 500. It is pretty crazy trying to juggle it all while pushing to make progress everyday.
The other difficulty that we have is that this is an original design chassis that is smaller than the traditional cookie cutter trophy trucks. We wanted trophy truck horsepower with a Texas Speed 427 which is based off the LS motor package. We hooked up a Magnuson Supercharger which should get us close to 900HP at the crank. Most trophy trucks are hitting 900HP – 1,200Hp these days.
ORX: Do you have all of the parts to put one of these together?
BW: The Texas Speed Motors are here. Our Maximum Off-Road Transmission is in the back. The Fortin Underdrive has arrived. The Camburg rear ends are stacked and ready. My King Shocks are ready to bolt-on. The custom Pyrotect Fuel Cells are on the way. I have a Holley Hydromat to drop in there. We have all the soft parts like the PRP Seats and safety equipment upstairs. All the big stuff is done. Everything going on this thing is the latest and greatest from the world of off-road and high-performance motorsports.
ORX: When is the first race for Jaws?
BW: We are aiming for the Mint 400. It is a monumental task, but it is the team, or really a family of friends and supporting partners that are the driving force. At this point chassis #1 is 90% complete with the fabrication. Chassis #2 is at 80%.
ORX: Kevin, as the designer, what was your biggest struggle in building the first legit trophy truck baja bug?
Kevin Butts: Blake built the enlarged VW metal shell in 2018. My task was to design and construct within that exterior footprint. We were constrained and limited on space.
Blake Wilkey: The plan all along was to run the hard shell so we could have working doors. A real door slammer! It will make it that much more unique and special. We could race trophy truck, or 1450 pro, and hang with Terra Crew too.
We teamed up with FiberwerX. They digitally scanned our shell and then made a plug with a 5-axis CNC machine to make a 3-piece mold. We will have carbon fiber skins of an XXL baja bug shell available for purchase. I already have a bunch of people on a waiting list for these skins.
ORX: What is next after Jaws?
BW: The plan is to build dual-sport prerunner baja bug chassis and sell them. We will keep doing Shreddy things. The Shreddy Ranch will come online soon. It never stops. Oh yeah, the Baja Bug Movie is in the works too. I am part of that as an Executive Producer, and you can expect big things and a first class documentary film.
Off Road Xtreme would like to thank Blake Wilkey for allowing us to meet up for this interview during his busy schedule. Seeing the final product unveiled is a testament to dreaming big and achieving one’s goals. We are thoroughly impressed and cannot wait to see this thing in person shredding through the desert.
Photography sourced from Method Race Wheels.
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