Two races into the 2010 BRC IMPCO V8 Supercar Challenge, Fujitsu Racing GRM has proved its commitment to the event.

While Fujitsu Racing GRM has copped criticism in recent years for not trying hard enough at the non-Championship points event, drivers Lee Holdsworth and Michael Caruso start the third race in 10th and 13th respectively.

The team started its drivers from pitlane in last year’s races to escape any potential carnage but as it was pointed out, the team was wary of any more damage to its cars.

Caruso was in a spare Commodore at last year’s Albert Park event because his usual one was undergoing extensive repairs to the back end following an incident with Greg Murphy at the Clipsal 500 Adelaide.

But this year it’s a totally different story for the driver dubbed ‘Robbo’.

“Yesterday we moved up 10 spots and it’s not like 10 cars fell off the track, we’re definitely racing,” Caruso said.

“On my car we are testing new components that we’ve been very cautious to use in racing until we’re sure of them so we are racing but we are trying to learn.

“It’s been good in that respect and we’ve learnt some good stuff so we’ll come out of this weekend a bit happier.”

Caruso said he has definitely focused more on what changes have been made to his car.

“The only bad thing is you get frustrated because you’re not normally driving where you are,” he said.

“We’ve been mid pack down towards 20 (until yesterday) so because we’re testing you’re always going to find that when you try something it doesn’t work and because the field is so competitive you drop back.

“But the good thing is we’re not really concerned where we finish this weekend, we’re more concerned about the rest of the year and where these new components and testing from this weekend will get us.”

Robbo said it was too early to decide on whether the new components will be used on the Fujitsu Commodores at next month’s ITM400 Hamilton in New Zealand.

“After today’s race we’ll decide what to do when we get back to the workshop on Monday and the engineers will go through their data and there will be a big debate on what we will do and what we won’t do because we have tried a fair few things,” he explained.

“There’s a lot to go over and discuss before we decide where we need to be for Hamilton.”

Caruso believes the V8 Supercars need to continue appearing at the non-Championship points event at Albert Park.

“The category has such a big presence in Australia and there’s a lot of our fans who come just to watch us let alone obviously the Formula One’s on this weekend,” he said.

“We’re becoming bigger and bigger and it’s good that we can give not just the people in Melbourne but everyone watching it on TV the chance to see us every couple of weeks.

“The sponsors enjoy seeing their cars going around the Grand Prix track and I suppose for a driver it’s good to go away racing and not have the pressure or the stresses of needing to compete at the top level and the same goes for the teams.”