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Air Products `On a Fast Track' With Its Nitrogen Service

24 August 1998

Air Products `On a Fast Track' With Its Nitrogen Service

 Company Celebrates a Decade of Product Supply to Over 400 Auto Racing Teams
        And Nearly 50 Raceways Throughout the United States and Canada

    LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa., Aug. 24 -- Air Products and Chemicals,
Inc. is celebrating a decade of service to the auto racing
industry, having provided gaseous nitrogen capacity and related supply
services to over 400 racing teams at nearly 50 racetracks throughout the
United States and Canada since 1988.  During that time frame, Air Products has
supplied hundreds of thousands of cylinders to the industry, and last year
alone, delivered over 17,000 cylinders of nitrogen gas to race teams for use
by pit workers for powering pneumatic tools, shock absorbers and tire
inflation.
    Air Products began supplying small quantities of nitrogen to one racing
team -- Nissan Performance Technology Incorporated (NPTI) -- for a single race
at Lime Rock Park, Conn. in 1988.  At that time, small quantities of Air
Products' nitrogen were used to supplement the nitrogen capacity already
hauled to the track by the race team itself.  Soon, teams began to realize the
benefit of having an outside supplier take responsibility for delivering the
necessary quantities of product -- when and where they needed it -- so that
they could focus more of their attention on the upcoming race.  Today, Air
Products delivers varying quantities of nitrogen directly to the track in the
days prior to a race, returning to the track after the event to retrieve empty
cylinders.
    Reflecting on the company's decade of service to the auto racing industry,
Bud Baker, Air Products' national cylinder account manager, said, "What
started out as the delivery of just a few cylinders of nitrogen gas to one
race team has, in effect, become an exciting business in which we have
supplied product and services to every major racetrack in the United States
and many throughout Canada.  It has been a pleasure to be a vital part of
keeping these teams and their sanctioning bodies on the fast track."
    Air Products supplies product to high-profile race teams such as Marlboro
Team Penske, Newman-Haas, A.J. Foyt Racing, Saleen/Allen Speedlab and many
others.  The company also services major racing sanctioning bodies, including
CART, Indy Lights, Toyota Atlantic, Pep Boys IRL, the United States Road
Racing Championship, SCCA Pro Racing, and Professional Sports Car Racing.