Former Supercars star Renee Gracie wants to fund an ambitious endeavor to get back to the sport she gave up and compete in a marquee event.
Renee Gracie has announced that she plans to spend around $ 1 million to make a comeback in the sport that she left to pursue a career in adult entertainment.
The former V8 Supercars poster girl said she’ll use the money to buy her own team as part of a plan to race in the iconic Bathurst 1000 next year.
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Gracie, who retired from the sport for lack of money in late 2017, will use her adult movie earnings to fund a racing team with the aim of achieving a top 10 placement on Mount Panorama.
“I want to buy my own team,” Gracie told The Daily Telegraph. “Every other day I get offers to race in someone else’s car.
“There are many ways and means to keep the hope and dream alive, but I would like to do it myself.”
Gracie hopes to lobby for wildcard entry to the Bathurst 1000, which will give her the luxury of not having to compete in the other Supercars rounds.
The sport awards between two and four wildcard entries each year, usually aimed at rookies, retired legends, or as a strategy for attracting large crowds.
After starting out in a go-kart, the 26-year-old competed in the 2013 and 2014 Porsche Carrera Cups before graduating from the Dunlop Supercars.
Gracie drove in Bathurst in 2015 and 2016 with former Indy Car driver Simona de Silvestro. The all-female couple finished 21st in 2015 and 14th on the second attempt.
Gracie quit racing after a season in the Super2 series and ended her six-year career as a professional racing driver.
Now cashing, Gracie argues, giving her a wild card would be exactly what supercars need to revive a “boring” sport.
“I don’t think anyone in Australia could get the interest I would attract,” she told the Daily Telegraph. “That would be huge.
“V8 is pretty boring at the moment – I haven’t survived a full race this year.”
Gracie believes it would be a big coup for supercars to have a female driver in the line-up again.
