BOC 'Thunders' onto the Discovery Channel.

Business Editors

MURRAY HILL, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 22, 2003

BOC North America (NA) has been asked by Leopard films of the UK to provide welding gases and hard goods for the welders and cutters used in Thunder Races, an engineering challenge series currently shown on the Discovery Channel in the UK and Europe.

California Tool and Welding Supply (CTWS), a BOC distributor, is working with Leopard Films in Las Vegas, Nevada while they film an American special of the show which will be shown early in the New Year on Discovery's The Learning Channel (TLC). CTWS will supply cylinder gases and welding hard goods to the film crew and Thunder Races contestants.

In the United States, BOC has a network of over 100 company-owned retail stores and 159 distributors, many with multiple store locations. This network allows BOC to offer products, services, and technical support anywhere in the country.

The basic premise of Thunder Races is that three teams of three car fanatics/mechanical engineering experts are given just $1000 and twenty-four hours to buy an old wreck and spare parts and then convert it into an incredible vehicle that they race at the end of the show. Each week they build a different type of vehicle -- one week monster trucks, the next dune buggies, etc.

Because of the extreme stress that the vehicles endure, welding is a critical element in the success or failure of the vehicles. "Leopard Films and the contestants are very knowledgeable about welding technology and demand top-of-the-line gases and supplies," said Tom Heemeyer, merchandising manager, BOC. "We are delighted to be associated with Leopard Films and this program."

Thunder Races is an hour long show, and the majority of the show follows the teams as they battle against the clock and push their skills to the limit trying to complete their vehicles by the deadline. The teams will be building their vehicles in a specially equipped hangar at a disused airfield near Las Vegas, and racing them over a custom-built course in the Nevada desert. The race is filmed using helicopter and in-car cameras to capture the drama, and a variety of extreme cameras including crash cams that the vehicles can actually drive over.

The BOC Group (NYSE:BOX), the worldwide industrial gases, vacuum technologies and distribution services company, serves two million customers in more than 50 countries. It employs 44,500 people and had annual sales of some $7 billion in 2003. Further information about The BOC Group may be obtained on the Internet at http://www.boc.com