In a furious hourlong competition that set two dozen teams from around the world against each other in a test of masonry skills, Scott Tuttle of Quick Trowel Masonry in Clearfield, Utah, was crowned champion of Spec Mix Bricklayer 500 competition at World of Concrete in Las Vegas. Tuttle’s prizes included the keys to a brand new 2016 Ford F-250 XLT 4x4 pickup truck.

Under the rules of the competition, teams are given one hour to build a 26-ft, 8-in., double-wythe brick wall of at least 500 bricks as high as they can. The competition is not just about laying the most bricks in a single hour, with judges paying attention to the quality of masonry and making deductions for flaws or poor craftsmanship.

Tuttle, working with his mason tender (and brother) Brian Tuttle managed an adjusted brick count of 775. Tuttle and his mason tender Dayne Carter were` the winners of the 2015 Spec Mix Bricklayer 500 regional competition for the Salt Lake City area.

The world championship this year drew entrants from across the United States and beyond, with Canadian and Australian teams competing as well.

As a possible sign of things to come, a booth next to the competition area featured the SAM100 semi-autonomous mason from Construction Robotics. The robotic bricklayer couldn’t keep up with the flurry of brick and mud over in the competition area and still needed a human tender, but it kept laying brick long after the trowels went down at the Spec Mix 500.