ROSS TO LIGHT UP STOCKS

'I Haven't Got Any Experience Aside From ... Dirt Biking'

For a guy whose main job is being Ross Rebagliati, the 1998 snowboarding
Olympic gold medallist always is looking for sidelines.

This spring and summer it will be stock car racing -- in a vehicle
sponsored by Hemptown Clothing.

"I'll give it a shot and see how I do," Rebagliati said Wednesday from his
home in Whistler. "It's a cure for my competitive urges.

"If things go well and it's something that's viable, I'd like to take it as
far as I can. For now, it's something that sounds like fun."

He'll be in the Lillooet Series, recreational races for stock cars
configured for the thunder class, which is similar to the sportsman class
in the U.S.

The tracks, at Merritt and Lillooet, are 1/8-mile dirt ovals. Speeds don't
exceed 100 m.p.h. (160 km/hr).

Rebagliati got the ride when the car's owner, Bruce Carson of Pemberton,
decided a chronic lower neck and upper back problem would take too much of
a pounding this season.

"Not a lot of guys have the time to pick this up," said Rebagliati, who
hasn't had what most of us would call a normal job in a decade.

"I've always had the urge to get behind the wheel. I couldn't pass this
up," said the lifelong motorsport fan who was the official starter at the
Indy a couple of years ago.

"But I haven't got any experience aside from a bit of dirt biking. Driving
in Europe is as close as I've ever gotten to it."

His experience racing on skis and boards should help a bit, he hopes. Not
that his mom shares his confidence.

"My mom's in Palm springs. She says, 'you can't let me retire and relax?
You've got to race cars now?'"

Hemptown Clothing is an east Vancouver company that markets its hemp
clothes as more environmentally-friendly and stronger than cotton.

The irony isn't lost on Rebagliati, who had his gold medal stripped then
reinstated after he tested positive for marijuana.

This led to one of the great lines of showbiz when talk-show host Jay Leno
asked Rebagliati: "So, our president smoked but didn't inhale; you inhaled
but didn't smoke?"

"I hope to create exposure for Hemptown," said Rebagliati, who moved to
Whistler from Vancouver 12 years ago. "And it's a good way for me to get
myself out to people I haven't met in the past. I did lots of work for
Roots and never made it to rural areas. These people are who keep the
country rolling."

At the moment, the 30-year-old is "spring cleaning."

He may make one more backcountry snowmobile trek in Alaska but his main
goal is his dream drive to Baja, Mexico, and back.

After his admitted marijuana use in the past, there was a legal question as
to whether he'd be able to attend the Winter Games at Salt Lake City.

But he decided to follow his lawyer across the border -- and everything
went fine.