Now able to count himself among the select list of race winners in the V8 Supercar Championship Series, Fujitsu Racing GRM young gun Michael Caruso is coming off the back of his most successful season yet in the championship.

The Sydney-born but now Melbourne-based driver is the latest in a long line of young drivers given an opportunity by team boss Garry Rogers, and has certainly repaid the faith over his first two seasons with the team.

Caruso became interested in motor sport through the influence of his father, who raced sports sedans and was a crew member for Kevin Bartlett when he race in Formula 5000. This connection proved extremely valuable, as the legendary Bartlett was to later mentor Caruso through a stint in open wheelers.

Karts came first at the age of 11, and several state titles and a North American junior championship were among the trophies he accumulated. Stints in Clubman, Formula A and Formula Ford championships prepared him for Formula Three, where he won the Australian title in 2003 with podium finishes in 13 of 16 rounds held. Over 2003 and 2004 he received several invitations to both test and compete in British Formula 3 and European Formula 3000, invitations he was unable to accept due to lack of funds.

In 2004 Caruso competed in two rounds of the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series for the John Faulkner-run Holden Young Lions squad, and in 2005 he contested three rounds of the Australian Formula Three Championship before a three-month stint in Europe working for the Belgium-based Astromega Formula 3000 team and the MRD Motorsport Formula Renault team. Both offered him a drive, but lack of funding again saw Caruso regretfully decline.

2006 brought Caruso squarely into focus for many V8 Supercar teams as he raced to 4th in the Fujitsu Series in a Decina-backed Falcon and won the Privateers’ Cup, and again in 2007 as he waged a fierce battle for the championship with Tony D’Alberto, eventually beaten to the title by just five points.

That opened the door to an opportunity with the Valvoline team for 2008 and Caruso quickly showed the sort of promise that earned him the drive. He developed even further in 2009, winning his first race at Hidden Valley in Darwin and combining with Lee Holdsworth to finish third at Bathurst, his first podium result in The Great Race.

Garry Rogers says he has been impressed not just by Caruso’s speed and talent, but also by his manner and commitment – all traits that have set him up as a man to watch in 2010 in the newly-liveried Fujitsu General GRM Commodore.