By TGM Staff
The Lucas Oil IPSC competitive team, left to right: Michael Whitesides (Texas), Scott Greene (Nevada), Becky Yackley (Wisconsin), Tobin Babcock (Indiana), Josh Froelich (Minnesota), Sky Killian (Texas), Lan Nguyen (Texas), Tim Yackley (Wisconsin), Julie Waasted (Texas) and Ursula Williams (Arizona).
Lucas Oil Products, Inc. is an American manufacturer and distributor of automotive oil, additives, and lubricants headquartered in Corona, CA. It was founded by trucker Forrest Lucas and his wife Charlotte in 1989.
Aside from the people who use the automotive additives and lubricants, motor oil, car and marine care products with the Lucas Oil label, the company is probably best known for its association with auto racing. In fact it produces and broadcasts auto racing television shows aired on MAVTV and Lucas Oil Racing TV. But Lucas Oil ha other interests, including rodeo events and shooting.
At a time when many corporations from airlines to bankers are trying to distance themselves from anything to do with guns, Lucas Oil is taking its own path.
In late May and early June, the Lucas Oil Pro Staff Competitive Team members scored well at the 2018 International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) Shotgun World Championships in Châteauroux, Central France. The combined 36-person US contingent (including 10 Lucas Oil sponsored shooters) more than held its own against a total field of 687 international competitors.
The ISPC World Championships is broken down into four divisions: Open, Standard, Modified and Standard Manual based on the type of shotgun and gear the competitors use.
Lucas Oil Pro Staff members were in excellent shooting form with Minnesotan Josh Froelich taking the Overall World Championship title. In addition, Nevada’s Scott Greene was 1st in the Open Division and 8th overall in the Open Division Shoot-Off; Wisconsin’s Becky Yackley won Gold on the Ladies Standard team and was 4th Lady in Standard division. Wisconsin’s Tim Yackley won Silver on the men’s Standard team plus 7th overall in Standard division. Texan Julie Waasted and Arizonan Ursula Williams both took home Bronze on the Modified Ladies Team.
The glorious awards ceremony took place in the Hall des Expositions de Belle-Isles in Chateauroux. The IPSC Shotgun World Championship, the third one of this discipline, was organized from May 28 to June 10 by the French Shooting Federation on its brand new shooting range in Chateauroux-Deols.
“France has always had a long and important tradition in IPSC going as far back as the very early beginnings of IPSC shooting. Under the supervision and guidance of Philippe Crochard and Alain Joly IPSC shooting in France has always been known for the high degree of competition, superb courses of fire, flawless organization, and unequalled hospitality. In 2018, like last year, Stephane Quertinier, the Regional Director, and his very good crew once again provided a wonderful and exciting competition. I would like to extend my appreciation and gratitude to these gentlemen and to the French Shooting Federation who are responsible for hosting this World Shoot event”, said IPSC President Vitaly Kryuchin.
For two weeks, 656 athletes from 40 countries competed in the 30 shooting bays of the National Sports Shooting Centre. They were divided into five categories – Lady, Junior, Overall, Senior and Super-Senior within the four different divisions.
The theme of the competition was “From Big Bang to Space Conquest”. Each of the five areas of shooting corresponded to a period from the evolution of humanity and included six courses of fire.
IPSC Shotgun was born over 30 years ago and offers spectacular shooting challenges. Several types of courses are used: short (up to 12 scoring hits), medium (up to 24 scoring hits) and long (up to 32 scoring hits) with various shooting distances. Targets are made of paper, clay or metal and can be fixed, mobile or have a cycle of appearance / disappearance.
The IPSC Shotgun World Shoot 2018 was supervised by more than 60 international referees and by 50 national referees, respectively overseen by the Range Master, José Carlos Belino of Brazil, and his assistant, Christophe Desfrançois (France).
