Every time businessman Ray Gillard drives down a poorly maintained gravel road in the back country, he whistles a happy tune. Because there are thousands of kilometres of bad road in North America. And Gillard holds the key to their rehabilitation.

It's known as Road Badger, a tough, trusty and thoroughly indomitable piece of gravel road restoration equipment that's received rave reviews from major energy companies, airport maintenance teams and municipal road crews alike.

As reported by the Edmonton Journal, Road Badger is a towable piece of equipment that relies on rows of bladed disks to tear up the surface of worn-out roads, airport runways and hard-packed asphalt. Then a series of "spoons" put surfaces back in place, "as smooth as if it was freshly graded and gravelled."

Purchase orders are beginning to pour in for this efficient, patent-protected product. And in preparation for an initial public offering (IPO), Gillard is offering investors a chance to get in on the ground floor.

A series of apparatus and methodological patents protect the Road Badger from being copied.

As president of this respected, eight-year-old company, Gillard believes the market for Road Badger is there for the taking. And at the modest price of just $2 a share, he's inviting you to climb aboard for what could be the most exciting ride of your life.

"We're currently presenting a final offering memorandum. It's an effort to raise capital prior to going public," he explains.

"We've already attracted more than 100 shareholders and have raised close to $3 million for concept, design and engineering. We need additional capital to fund the component inventory part of the business so we'll be ready to continue filling purchase orders as they come in."

Investors who act quickly will certainly improve their chances of watching their $2 shares rise in value in the wake of the IPO.

Judging by the warm response from users who've worked with the product, Road Badger's manufacturing facility will be extremely busy. Check out these written testimonials supplied by unimpeachable sources.

* EnCana Corp., North America's largest independent oil and gas producer, ran the Road Badger through its paces for five months, under the worst possible conditions on rugged oilfield roads in the muskeg country of Northern Alberta.

Afterwards, an EnCana production technologist reported "major cost savings, with the capital cost of the unit being repaid many, many times over" during the five-month test period.

* AEC Ecuador, a division of EnCana, notes that Road Badger doubled conventional road maintenance production on the hardscrabble road surfaces of the Ecuadorean jungle. Road Badger's enormous capacity for work led to results "that would amount to productivity of four times the conventional method," wrote AEC Ecuador Facilities Advisor Alan Johnston.

* Alberta Transportation gave Road Badger an extensive field test and subsequently wrote to Gillard that "the department believes there is a valuable role for the ... equipment in the maintenance of gravel road and dust controlled road surfaces."

Who are the ideal end users for this road-ready workhorse? Administrators for resource companies, municipalities or rural counties who are responsible for the control, operation and maintenance of their own road system. It's not widely known that each of several Alberta jurisdictions control as many as 1,000 kilometres of dirt or gravel roads.

"That's our market and essentially it's a gold-key market," enthuses Gillard. "You're dealing with counties and counties don't go bankrupt. And you're dealing with some of the most successful contractors and corporations in the country, many of which maintain their own extensive networks of private roads."

Investors respond to Road Badger because they recognize that the sales opportunities are virtually limitless. Meanwhile, as the Road Badger sales campaign kicks into high gear, investors enjoy an additional comfort zone: they know there will be limited opportunity for "knock-off" competitors to horn in on the market. A series of apparatus and methodological patents obtained by the company give it maximum protection from imitators.

Then Gillard drives home another important point: Now more than ever, North American industry needs an all-purpose piece of equipment designed exclusively for the restoration of unpaved roads.

"All the road-maintenance equipment that's been developed to this point is intended for paved roads," he says. "But who's developed equipment for gravel and lightly-surfaced roads? Nobody except us."

Apparently, nobody's been thinking about the more than three million kilometres of public gravel roads that exist in North America. Clearly, each of those kilometres represents a major opportunity.

A well-respected Alberta entrepreneur of long standing, Ray Gillard urges potential investors to stop by the website: www.roadbadger.com/invest.htm. There, visitors will learn how to fill in an online share subscription agreement.

Or call 780.433.4322; fax 780.665.7269; or e-mail info@roadbadger.com.