Renee Gracie is living proof of why you should never judge a book by its cover.
The 28-year-old is getting set to compete in her second race weekend after returning to motorsport six years after hopping out of the car.
Stream Over 50 Sports Live & On-Demand with Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >
The former Supercars driver-turned adult entertainer finally got back behind the wheel last month after plotting her return for several years.
But like it has been throughout the majority of her life, the judgement came thick and fast when her comeback was announced.
Competing in a male-dominated industry, Gracie has long drawn negative criticism from fans about her place in the sport.
Those reactions only amplified when she made her career switch to adult entertainment, and were further reignited when her return behind the wheel hit the news.
Gracie’s comeback is set to hit televisions across the country with a camera crew following her every step.
The documentary set to be released by Stan Sport, Revealed: Renee Gracie, will show off a side of the Brisbane-born driver that’s rarely seen and is set to show the world why you truly never should judge a book by its cover.
“Originally, I sort of just thought it would be cool to have a documentary about me just so that when I’m old I can show it off like ‘look your aunty has a documentary’,” she told news.com.au.
“I didn’t really think much about it. But I think for me, it’s more just to show that there’s more to the story.
“Don’t just judge a book by its cover. People make their assumptions on me off the basis of my supercar career, my racing career, and then they judge me by what I do now.
“And I feel like my main message is no matter how it comes across, there’s always more to what you see and what you think you know, and never to judge a book by its cover as crazy as that sounds. And as cliche as that sounds, it’s really true.
“And I feel like, definitely, the industries that I’ve been in – motorsport is one of the strictest, like the hardest ones and the toughest ones in regards to people’s opinions.
“And then my current career path is also the same. So I feel like that’s the main message is just never judge someone and never expect anything based on what someone does.”
Despite the constant criticism and judgment that gets thrown her way online, she isn’t paying attention to the court of negative public opinions.
In two races around the Perth track, in the GT World Challenge Australia series, she finished 12th in the opener before finishing 15th in the second race.
The results, which many quick to point out were lacklustre, are the building blocks for her settling back into life behind the wheel.
Throughout it all there’s only a select group of people whose opinions matter to the Brisbane born driver.
“I learned very early on, having learned the hard way at a young age, that I can absolutely not afford to pay attention to what’s going on in the media, otherwise it’d be the death of me,” Gracie said.
“So I do not pay attention to any of that stuff, I stay right out of it.
“The only people who I strive to make happy and impress and really want to make sure that they’re happy with me are the program itself, obviously, my sponsors the team, and like, mechanics and the guys who work on the car, and engineers who all we’re spending, you know, all of these days together all of these hours together, and if I want to go out and do something, and they say, this is what you’ve got to do, I want to make sure I do it for them. “Everyone else, I switch off, turn off. And I make sure that I just avoid at all costs, reading anything or seeing anything negative whatsoever.
“I find the positive stuff finds its way to me whether people share it, and people show it to me, I find that positive stuff always finds its way to me, because it’s hard to get positive stuff that’s worth sharing. They generally send it to me, which is nice. But all the negative stuff I ignore.”
Catch Renee Gracie this weekend at SpeedSeries Phillip Island, ad-free, live and on demand on the home of motorsport, Stan Sport.
Things change continuously in sport and after six years away from the paddock, the thing that changed more than anything else for Gracie was the environment.
Her comeback has seen her become the leader of the team, rather than being just the driver who is told where to be and what to do.
“The biggest thing for me is the environment. I’ve come back to racing in control of my own destiny,” she said.
“I feel way less stress, way less pressure. I can come to the track at a reasonable time, I don’t have to worry about making sure I’m here by this time and you’ve got to help the team set up and you’ve got to do this and do that.
“I just feel a lot more relaxed and a lot more at peace with everything that’s going on and in more control. I think that’s the biggest take I’ve come away with so far.”
Gracie took control of that destiny by decking out her Audi R8 LMS with OnlyFans logos all over the car.
While the design may have ruffled some revhead feathers, the move was done to prove that despite what people may think in the end “nothing else matters”.
“Knowing that we had OnlyFans on board, I think to me, the biggest thing is that I just wanted it to be an OnlyFans car because I just wanted to prove a point that I can be backed by them, have their full support, and nothing else matters,” she said.
“The goal was to have OnlyFans and make it look loud, but also sophisticated and sort of not rub it in anyone’s face all at the same time.
“I guess the rules that I set for the design and I just thought I want it to look good, I want it to be loud. But I don’t want people to be offended when they see that it’s OnlyFans on the side of it. So that was sort of the take. And I think we achieved that.”
The series now shifts to Phillip Island with races on both Saturday and Sunday. Gracie is out to build on her first weekend in the car.
“I’m really excited that we’ve got back to back events and I’m back in the car relatively quickly after having a good weekend of experience,” she said.
“I just feel like the morale is high, the confidence is high. Everyone is just sort of excited to see how we can keep progressing forward.
“Everyone is in a really good spot including myself, the team, the car. Everyone is really looking forward to seeing how this weekend goes.
“The car is really good, it’s the perfect car for the program that we’re running and what we’re trying to achieve.
“I don’t have to worry about it too much, it drives really well it’s reliable it’s comfortable.
“Just to hop in something and feel confident and comfortable initially is a really important thing for confidence.
“We achieved that and I think it’s going to be the same this weekend at Phillip Island, I think it’s just going to be slot in, hop in the car and just focus more on myself.
“It relieves a little bit of the stress and pressure knowing that we don’t stress out about the car, it’s more the driver unfortunately.”
After dusting off the cobwebs, the learning curve is set to continue over the weekend with Gracie’s main goal to become more in tune with the car.
“I think more track time, more time in the car. In the first round it was sort of really just getting used to everything, me understanding what’s going on, me dusting all the cobwebs off and going ‘right, this is how we go racing again’.
“Again, I think time it’s definitely trying to be in tune with the car a little bit more start to feel and think about things that are happening when I’m out on track.
“So start to understand the car a little bit more, this is a high aero tracks so probably a really good time to understand how a really high aero car works at a higher aero track, which I’ve never really had before.
“So I think there’s going to be a huge learning curve for this weekend. Definitely more track time starting to feel at one with the car and start to feel what the car’s doing and starting to learn to understand it a little bit more. I think that’s probably going to be the main take from this weekend.”