Leo Maia, the 2003 Barber Dodge Pro Series champion, hassigned a deal with Brian Stewart Racing to drive one of its Infiniti-Dallaras alongside teammateJesse Mason for the rest of 2004. The deal comes after a very successful test at Texas MotorSpeedway on Monday the 15th; Maia's first race will be this weekend (Mar. 20) at the IRL eventat Phoenix International Raceway.

Maia, 22, of Oakland, Calif., who won six of 10 starts in the 2003 Barber Dodge championship --including an impressive win on Milwaukee's oval -- will take his $100,000 Career Enhancementtitle bonus to the same team that has over its long history fielded winning cars for a host of noteddrivers, including Bryan Herta, Cristiano da Matta and Paul Tracy.Maia said, "I'm very grateful for the support I've gotten the past three years from Skip BarberRacing, and they helped make this happen. This is a great opportunity, with an excellent team."

Regarding the Texas test, Maia said, "Sure, I had my concerns about running a big oval, butthings went great, and after about six laps, I felt comfortable, no problems. I'm really lookingforward to the year."Doug Hoy, Brian Stewart Racing team manager, said, "Leo really exceeded our expectations. AtTexas, I just wanted him to get comfortable, but the next thing I know he's out there doing 190and giving us really good feedback." Hoy said that Johnny Rutherford was the IRL observer,"and he told me he was quite impressed with Leo's speed and management -- and he noticed thatLeo was only four-tenths off last year's pole time."Hoy added that he and the team are excited to have two young, up-and-coming drivers on thesquad: "We are very proud of our Canadian heritage, and so having Jesse Mason [an Ontarionative who scored the team's first-ever IPS podium Feb. 29 at Homestead] doing a great job issatisfying. Now with Leo on-board, we have two very talented youngsters, and we expect toreally move forward this year."