Commodore Cup racing was Lee Holdsworth’s unusual but appropriate apprenticeship before his step up to V8 Supercars in 2005 with Garry Rogers Motorsport.

Holdsworth’s promotion to the top echelon was a leap of faith on the part of team boss Garry Rogers, who had seen glimpses of the youngster’s talent in a handful of Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series races.

After beginning in go kart racing at the age of seven at Ipswich Kart Club, the Melbourne-born, Queensland-raised Holdsworth began racing in the Commodore Cup in 2001, and finished in the top five in 2002.

He made the step up to driving a V8 Supercar for Smiths Trucks Racing in the Fujitsu Series in 2003, finishing sixth in his first event at a wet Wakefield Park and later winning a reverse grid race at Eastern Creek.

Keen to further enhance and develop his mechanical setup knowledge, Lee drove in the Australian Formula Ford Championship in 2005 in addition to selected rounds of the Fujitsu Series, again for the Smiths Trucks team.

It was solid results in his infrequent appearances in the V8 Supercar that drew the attention of GRM team boss Garry Rogers, who signed the youngster to drive in the endurance events alongside Phil Scifleet. The duo finished in the top 20 at Sandown and was well placed at Bathurst before a freak incident where the bonnet flew open and smashed the windscreen.

Holdsworth was invited back to drive in the 2005 series finale at Phillip Island before being signed on a full-time basis for 2006, enduring the customarily steep learning curve of all series rookies which began to pay dividends in 2007. He only received a VE Commodore – the first new car of his racing career – in Round 7, and the following round nabbed his breakthrough round victory in a dominant weekend at Oran Park on his way to several top 10 finishes and 15th placing for the season.

With new teammate Michael Caruso making his main series debut in 2008, Holdsworth assumed the mantle of team leader, but now importantly now armed with Walkinshaw Racing engines. A first up podium finish in the Clipsal 500 made for a big season and Holdsworth again showed that his 2007 result at Oran Park was no fluke.

In 2009 he stepped up even higher, taking his first career pole in Townsville and then repeated the dose in the inaugural event in Sydney. A podium finish at Bathurst alongside Michael Caruso was a career highlight, with Holdsworth running in the top 10 of the championship pointscore for the majority of the season before finishing 10th at the end of the 26-race season.

This year he will return for his fifth straight year with Garry Rogers’ squad, which has received the added backing of Fujitsu General for 2010 and will now be known as Fujitsu Racing GRM.