IRL: PEP Boys IRL Weekly Notebook 98-02-16

PEP BOYS INDY RACING LEAGUE WEEKLY NOTEBOOK

INDIANAPOLIS, Feb. 16, 1998 - Notes and quotes from the Pep Boys Indy Racing League:

Moving on up: The list of USAC open-wheel standouts moving to the Pep Boys Indy Racing League keeps growing, as Dave Steele and J.J. Yeley will test this week at Phoenix International Raceway in preparation for their scheduled IRL debut at the Phoenix 200 on March 22 at PIR.

Steele will drive for the new rsm Marko team, owned by European motorsports mogul Dr. Helmut Marko and managed by Rupert Buchsteiner. Yeley will drive for Arizona Motor Sport Racing/SRS as a teammate to Dr. Jack Miller. "I'm ecstatic about the IRL opportunity that Dr. Marko has given me," Steele said. "Everything that I have read or heard about their European successes tells me we will be very competitive in the series." Steele passed his IRL rookie test in 1996 but will take a refresher test Feb. 19 at PIR in preparation for racing the rest of the 1998 IRL schedule. He drove 25 laps in the team's Dallara/Aurora during a shakedown test Feb. 13 at USA International Speedway in Lakeland, Fla., a