So you think you’re hot stuff on snow?

Well, maybe you are, and you’ll have the opportunity to find out Sunday at Mount Bachelor by matching turns against four-time Olympian A.J. Kitt.

Kitt is scheduled to be at the mountain to give a clinic and make several runs as a pacesetter for NASTAR. The National Standard Race is a ski racing program that provides recreational racers with an opportunity to compare their ability with some of the top racers in the country.

”The emphasis is on fun and family skiing,” said Al Pierce of the Bend Ski Club, which is organizing the three NASTAR races at Mount Bachelor this winter. ”On the upper end of things, it can lead to getting invited to the national championships.”

The clinic is at 9:45 a.m. at the Midway run, which is located near the Snoblast Tubing Park not far from the West Village Lodge. The race is also planned for Midway, and it gets underway at 1 p.m.

Cost to race is $10 for children and students, $15 for adults, and $25 for families. The event is open to alpine skiers, telemark skiers, snowboarders and disabled riders. Medals will be awarded in each category, which are further divided by gender and age.

Participants can register on race day from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the lower level of the West Village Lodge.

Two more NASTAR races are planned at Mount Bachelor on Jan. 18 and Feb. 15.

NASTAR works by having top racers such as Kitt post a ”par time” at special pacesetting races. He travels to ski areas around the country posting par times, and then other skilled racers run the same course.

It is then determined how much slower the other pacesetters were based on a percentage of the difference in times between them and Kitt. That percentage difference becomes their handicap for the remainder of the season.

Those other pacesetters can then go to NASTAR races at other ski areas. When they make a run and post a time, their percentage handicap is used to calculate how much faster Kitt would have gone, and, hence, what time Kitt would have posted.

Racers taking part can then see how they compare with Kitt.

”He touches in one way or another every NASTAR pacesetter,” said Pierce. ”He’s the national pacesetter. That way (participants) have a way to compare themselves to A.J., who in turn compares himself to Bode Miller. The final par time is Bode Miller.”

Miller, besides being a force on the World Cup, won silver medals in the giant slalom and combined at the 2002 Olympics.

Kitt, who retired from high-level racing three years ago and lives in Hood River, certainly wouldn’t be considered slow. During his career, he won four World Cup downhills – two in Val d’lsere, France, and two more in Aspen, Colo. He was ninth in the downhill at the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, France, and that same year was third overall in World Cup points. He picked up a bronze medal at the 1993 World Championships.

He won four national titles as well, becoming the top U.S. downhill racer in 1992 and 1995, and the super-G champion in 1991 and 1992.

So local racers wanting to compare their speeds to Kitt’s will likely not end up waiting at the bottom of the hill for him.

Pierce said he expects racers from age 4 to 80 to compete this year. For those who manage to finish in the top three in their category, an invitation to the national championships will be forthcoming.

That event is planned for the last weekend in March in Park City, Utah. Last season, 13 racers who qualified at Mount Bachelor went to the national event, which typically draws more than 1,000 competitors.

All those competitors will have raced against pacesetters who had handicaps based off of Kitt.

”That’s the beauty of NASTAR,” said Chuck Kenlan of the Mount Bachelor Ski Education Foundation, which is taking care of the timing and other details of Sunday’s race. ”You can compare yourself to racers all the way across the country.”

But this weekend, trying to keep up with A.J. Kitt should be enough of a challenge.

Keith Ridler can be contacted at 383-0393 or kridler@bendbulletin.com.