Former Supercars driver turned Only Fans creator Renee Gracie talks boxing, motherhood
The Supercars outcast who turned to making raunchy online videos opens up on her foray into boxing and why she never had a problem with being called the ‘Pussy Wagon’ at Bathurst.
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She’s the Australian motor racing trailblazer who drove the infamous ‘pussy wagon’ at Bathurst, has become an Only Fans millionaire – and now Renee Gracie is gloving up for a new challenge.
The Gold Coast porn star, podcaster and professional racing driver is scheduled to box fellow podcaster Summer Perry at thePodcast Royale 2.0 fight night at the Gold Coast Convention Centre on April 26.
While boxing might be a new skill for Gracie, she said fighting was not.
In fact, she’s come out swinging against Supercars, claimed she felt used by the sport to make money, was dropped as a driverwithout a cent to her name and erased from its memory after her move to Only Fans.
Gracie said she has ruled out ever returning to Supercars after her attempt to return and race in the 2023 Bathurst 1000 asa wildcard was denied.
However, she said one thing she wasn’t upset about was the “pussy wagon” reference made by then-teammate David Reynolds in 2015 during the lead-up to the V8 series at the Bathurst 1000.
Reynolds referred to Gracie and co-driver Simona De Silvestro, who formed the Harvey Norman-backed Super Girls entry, as the “pussy wagon” in a press conference and the comments quickly went viral.
But Supercars sanctioned Reynolds and he was fined $25,000, the biggest for a driver in the sport’s history.
Gracie said she was pushed by her manager to make a statement in response decrying his remarks, despite having no issue with Reynolds or what he said.
“I loved it. I wanted to run merchandise,” she said.
“I wanted it to be like my new nickname. It could have really taken off and been cool.
“We were with Ford Performance Racing and Dave was in the team, so we used to say all sorts of stuff like that.
“I let Supercars know I didn’t have a problem with Dave’s comments, we were on the same team and we’d all say stuff like that,but they were worried about how it would look in the media so I had to say what they thought, not what I thought.
“And then I just copped it more from the fans for speaking against Dave.”
When it comes to her upcoming rounds in the ring, Gracie said she agreed to the match in part because of many regrets shehad from her first stint in motorsport.
In 2023, she returned to racing as part of the GT World Challenge Australia series, claiming a Trophy championship as bossof her own team – sponsored by Only Fans.
“I have a lot of regrets from my time with Supercars, not that I think I could have done anything differently because I didn’thave the power, but I feel like I really lost myself,” she said.
“Now I only do what I want to do but part of what I want to do is to try new things. I have never boxed in my entire life before eight weeks ago, but you never know how new experiences will change you. Look at Only Fans.
“I’m not necessarily good at boxing, but it’s my choice to give it a go. It makes me excited not to stagnate … and besides, the fitness I’m gaining will only help me in motorsport.”
The Bulletin asked Supercars for a response to Gracie’s criticisms but it declined.
THE BIG INTERVIEW: She’s famous for stripping off on camera and making millions from sex videos, but Gold Coast Only Fans performer Renee Gracie claims she has been the victim of exploitation.
However, it’s never been between the sheets, never on video and never on social media … only behind the wheel.
Before she became the driving force behind her porn career, and an accompanying multimillion-dollar fortune, Gracie was Australia’s first female Supercars star.
And, forgive the pun, she says that was the only time she has ever been screwed.
Having just turned 30, with her Only Fans career rock solid and the platform now the official sponsor of her remarkable return to the car racing circuit – becoming the 2023 GT World Challenge Trophy Champion – Gracie is only expanding her fem-pire.
She recently launched her own podcast, In the Backseat, and is branching out into boxing with a bout booked against fellow podcaster Summer Perry at the Podcast Royale 2.0 fight night at the Gold Coast Convention Centre next month.
Gracie said she was feeling stronger than ever before, both physically and mentally, but was only now beginning to realise the depth of the trauma she experienced in the darkest years of her racing career.
She said that recounting her wild ride in racing and beyond in the Stan documentary Renee Gracie: Fireproof, was critical to her emotional recovery.
“Looking back, Supercars was like a pimp. They got rich off my back and I got screwed,” she claimed.
“They pushed me as a sex symbol but once they did not profit from it anymore, they wiped me from Supercars memory.
“There has never been anyone to do what I did, but they have never thanked me, just disowned me.
“But knowing what I know now, I realise there was nothing I could have done, they were too powerful and I never had a voice, even if I had tried to speak up, no one would have listened.
“I was brought over to Supercars because they felt pressured to show they were inclusive, but I wasn’t ready and I wasn’t given support, I was set up to fail.”
Gracie said while she would always be proud of her achievements in Supercars, as well as her previous racing record in the Porsche Carrera Cup Australia Championship, she had suffered from constant verbal abuse from spectators on and off the track, and had even been physically abused when a spectator threw a full beer can at her head from the corporate stands.
She claimed she had received neither protection nor payment from Supercars and was struggling to survive when she stepped away from her career in 2017 after being told there was no more money for her to race.
“When Simona de Silvestro and I raced as the ‘Supergirls’, the value of the whole Bathurst 1000 event was $62 million, and the value of Renee and Simona’s media was $22 million.
“Yet through my whole career in motorsport until 2017, I got zero dollars and zero cents. I was fully sponsored but every cent would go back into the racing program, I was never paid to race.
“When I left, I left with nothing. For years I had received death threats just because I was a girl driving a car. I was hated and that was the culture from the time I first started racing go-karts.
“So once it was all gone, I was in a dark place. There were times when I didn’t want to think about living anymore.
“Doing the documentary and sort of reliving it all, it brought up so many things that my brain and my body had blocked. It was a trauma blackout and there are some things I still won’t let myself remember.
“But there were some things I could never forget, like the constant tearing down of my weight and my looks. I was berated about it every single day, from the professionals who worked with me to the spectators who would abuse me,
“I’ve had a lot of surgeries and cosmetic work done because of that, I felt like I had to make myself be this perfect woman I was supposed to be.
“I know I didn’t do it for the right reason, but I’m still glad I did it (have surgery), because at least it gave me peace of mind, it was one less thing I had to worry about. Once that damage was done to my self-esteem, I couldn’t undo it. I hate to think of where my headspace would be now if I didn’t go under the knife.
“I never did have therapy, and I think that’s to do with the culture I was in. I couldn’t be a ‘weak’ woman, I had to man up, to take some concrete pills … and there’s a part of me that probably still resists that, even though I think it would actually be the best thing.”
After those darkest of days, Gracie said she finally saw the light when it dawned on her to join Only Fans.
She said her social media journey started when her racing career first ended. At long last she was not answerable to a manager or a company, but could post the ‘real Renee’ who, living on the Gold Coast, often wore a bikini.
When fans suggested she join Only Fans, she had no idea what the platform even was … but within days she had opened her account and posted her first photo. Within 15 minutes she had more than 2000 subscribers and earned almost $50,000.
She gradually shifted into lingerie photos, then nudes and, eventually, sex videos.
Gracie said in her view the X-rated platform was a safer space for women than motorsports, although she would neither persuade nor dissuade women from either career.
Instead, she said her advice was to get educated about the realities of both industries and go in with eyes wide open.
“On every level, Only Fans is so much safer than motorsports,” she said.
“I tell girls who want to do motorsports, and especially their parents, that she will be dragged through the mud. Protect her at all costs. This is an incredibly male-dominated sport and her story will inevitably be similar to mine. I’m not trying to stop them, I just want them to know the reality and make sure they are ready for it.
“But for every girl who comes through, it will get easier. And to every girl who wants to try, I will always share my insights, I will tell them straight up the people who will support them and the people who will not.
“I know I still hold the flag for women in the sport and I know that most of the men say I’m a bad role model … I wonder if they even realise they were the ones sexualising me and abusing me? The messages I used to get were disgusting, uninvited and for much of the time I was just a teenager. They are the ones who should be ashamed of their actions.
“But the positive of this is that whoever the next woman is to come through, you can’t get any worse than me. You’ll always be seen as better because I’m the ultimate black sheep. And I will be cheering for you.”
While her experience as an Only Fans creator has been nothing but positive, Gracie said she also had advice for those interested in joining the platform.
She said being successful on the site was no easy ride but required a lot of hard work.
She said women needed to be honest with themselves, too, about whether they would have the necessary support from their social circles.
“I have a lot of girls ask me about doing Only Fans and the thing I most want them to consider is whether doing this will isolate them. Can their family handle it? Can their friends? If I sense any angst about it, I say don’t do it,” said Gracie, whose father supports her Only Fans career and is even her accountant.
“The girls who really want to do it and are ready to take that step, I say go ahead, they are the ones I don’t believe will regret it and they can stop at any time. The content creator is always in control.
“You don’t need to be an influencer or have a big social media following, but you do have to work hard. You get out of the job what you put into it. Don’t think you can just take some regular photos of your feet and make a million dollars.
“In fact, foot photos are probably one of the toughest niches. You will be asked to put your toes in places you never expected and your audience is limited to fetishists.
“You have to treat your account like any business. For me, when I do sex videos I have parameters around who I’ll make them with.
“I have a vetting process and I would rather have the same rotation of people I trust, and they are like my employees, they get paid or they send an invoice and I’m the boss who calls the shots on my own page.
“I’m never not in charge of what I will do.”
In fact, Gracie said control was the key difference between her two careers.
But she said it was that very factor that allowed her to once again embrace racing, this time as part of the GT World Challenge Australia.
She said she had been embraced and welcomed by the competition and would never return to Supercars.
However, she said while it might take a while for other motorsports to change their culture, there was already a growing shift emerging.
“The GT competition has been amazing, I have been so blessed to have them welcome me with open arms. I’ll stay in this competition forever.
“The sad thing is that motorsport in general is the last place in sports where bad behaviour from fans is accepted. In the NRL or AFL you can’t abuse or slander players or other spectators, you’ll get thrown out. In motorsports, there is no duty of care, drivers have no power, all the control is with the teams and the management.
“There is such tight control over the behaviour of drivers, they aren’t allowed to have a personality anymore, yet the fans can say and do whatever they like with no repercussions.
“There has been a bit of drama lately with the way that some drivers have been treated, they’ve walked away or their contracts haven’t been renewed and once they leave they find their voice.
“It’s actually been incredible to hear some of them corroborate the same things I’ve been saying. The sport needs to change because we’re losing the best drivers because they don’t want to be there anymore.”
While she said she planned to continue racing for as long as she could and with no plans to leave Only Fans, Gracie said she was always looking for the next challenge.
However, she said there was one role she just wasn’t interested in.
“Being 30, a lot of people ask me if I want to have kids and I just don’t see that being on the forecast,” she said.
“Possibly it’s all part of the trauma, the thought of having a daughter and all she would have to deal with terrifies me.
“I do hope to have a partner one day but I feel like my life doesn’t involve that traditional family model.”
Instead, Gracie said she was incredibly happy pursuing an unconventional life – including her podcast and upcoming boxing match.
“I’ve met so many fascinating people in my life whose stories are even more interesting than my own, so I love being able to explore that in the podcast,” she said.
“Since I turned 30, I’m focusing on saying yes to new things, so when they pitched the boxing match to me, I thought why not?
“It’s a proper match, two-minute rounds and five rounds in front of 5000 people. You never know, it might be better than therapy.
“I’m just so grateful that all my decisions have brought me here, to a place where I’m proud and in control. Now it’s my job to pay it forward.
“I’ve fought for equality my whole life. I will protect women at all costs, but I have a soft spot for everyone.
“I don’t want any man or woman to feel the way I was made to feel. Gender shouldn’t come into it, people are people.
“We all deserve to be loved and be free to make the best choices for ourselves.”
After a tough ride, Gracie is finally in the driver’s seat.
The Bulletin asked Supercars to respond to Gracie’s criticisms but it did not respond.
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Originally published as Former Supercars driver turned Only Fans creator Renee Gracie talks boxing, motherhood
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