he Lone Star Throwdown, better known as LST, has continually progressed with each passing year. However, it wasn’t always the biggest truck event in the nation, as all events have to start somewhere. Back in 2012, Todd “Radar” Hendrex and Lonnie Ford saw the need for a better show and came up with the idea of LST, which has always been held at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds in Conroe, Texas. Though the initial year only drew in a few hundred vehicles, it immediately gained a good reputation.

As crowds increased over the years, the staff had to make changes to ensure smooth operation over the weekend. One of those changes is the limitation of 2,000 vehicles that must all be preregistered. This helps reduce congestion and also makes competition stiffer, as there is only a “Top 100” plus 62 other specialty custom awards crafted by Philbuilt Designs. With this amount, only the top 12 percent are lucky enough to go home with some new hardware.

Going out this year was a bit weird as last year’s show was the last event we attended before the COVID-19 shutdown. Since then, a lot of events were rescheduled or fully canceled during the rest of the season. This left many truck enthusiasts feeling hungry to get back to it. With that pent-up enthusiasm, people came out in droves (about 25,000 spectators) to the 10th anniversary LST, which was held February 26-28, 2021.

With this event turning a decade old, the excitement level was at an all-time high. We are not overhyping it either—there really was an elevated level of quality vehicles that had our head spinning all weekend long. Our time there ended when the Best of Show award was handed to Fred Bishop, owner of the 1971 Ford F-100 built by Big Willie’s Garage and featured on the cover of our Feb. ’21 issue. It was exciting to see it all unfold. We can’t wait for next year’s show!