This is the kind of documentary everyone should watch — even if they have no clue about car racing (guilty!).
Documenting the racing career of Renee Gracie, the Stan Original Documentary Revealed - Renee Gracie: Fireproof follows Gracie, the first Australian woman to compete full-time in Supercars in fourteen years, as she discusses her retirement from racing, the years of sexism she faced, her pivot to a wildly successful career as an OnlyFans creator, before she reentered V8 racing in 2023.
The powerful documentary is now streaming only on Stan.
Featuring interviews with Renee, her friends and family, along with supercar drivers and journalists covering the sport, the documentary lifts the lid on the sinister side of competitive driving, uncovering the years of exploitation and injustice that Renee had to face just to be considered to compete in a sport known for being dominated by men.
This is a story about Renee's resilience and how she found empowerment not through Supercars — despite being one of the first women to break the glass ceiling in the sport — but through the autonomy and independence found in her career in OnlyFans, which made her a multimillionaire.
"The filmmakers contacted me almost three years ago, and it’s been an unbelievably fun and amazing process since that day," Renee said about the process of filming the documentary.
"Renee Gracie: Fireproof documents my journey through Go-Karts into V8, my transition into OnlyFans, and the cameras were there to capture my entire return to motorsport – the result is a salacious (pretty standard for me) and thrilling behind the scenes ride into my life, and I cannot wait to share it with you all!"
From her humble beginnings growing up in Brisbane in the 2010s, as soon as Renee tried Go-Karts for the first time with her father — she was hooked. After beating her dad, she started competing in Go-Karts and soon became a national champion.
Gracie was then recruited into the racing scene in 2013, competing for two seasons in the Porsche Carrera Cup Australia, landing in five top 10 race results and gaining a 100 per cent finishing record.
She was the first female to compete in the Australian Porsche Carrera Cup, and Gracie quickly moved to Super2 in 2015, becoming the first full-time female competitor in the category in 14 years.
Despite her success throughout her career, Renee faced continuous abuse and discrimination due to her gender. She was positioned as a poster child for solving sexism in sport, yet behind the scenes, her skills as a driver came secondary to her being a woman, as she claims she was pressured by her manager to maintain her looks and to lose weight.
After being pushed into competing in her first Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 without enough training, she was entered as a wildcard entry with Swiss driver Simona De Silvestro in 2016, an all-women team which felt more tokenistic than making any genuine progress in the sport.
The pair became the first all-female duo to compete in the Bathurst 1000 since Melinda Price and Kerryn Brewer in 1998.
By 2017, Renee announced her retirement and after gaining popularity by posting an occasional bikini pic on her Instagram account, her friend suggested OnlyFans, a platform the driver had never heard of. After joining, Renee would go on to become one of Australia's highest earners on the subscription-based adult content creator page.
In 2023, with a renewed sense of self and empowerment, Renee would attempt to reenter the world of racing and prove to all her haters that she was never a tokenistic entry in her early career — she was a winner.
This film will make you feel all the emotions: anger over what Renee had to deal with from powerful men stuck in the past, joy over her resilience and supportive relationship with her father, and sadness over what she had to endure for simply being a woman, who after years of other people profiting from her good looks, flipped the script by making her own money on OnlyFans and reclaiming her sexuality.
The documentary comes from an all-female creative team from Western Australia. It was written and directed by Frances Elliott and Samantha Marlowe (AWGIE Award-Winning Girl Like You) and produced by Cody Greenwood (Girl Like You) and executive produced by Nick Batzias and Charlotte Wheaton.
"Renee Gracie has been the subject of public scrutiny across international news outlets and comments sections ever since she was eighteen-years-old, merely for daring to be a woman who had a passion for driving V8’s and going fast," said directors Frances Elliott and Samantha Marlowe.
"Over years, a storyline of who she is has been created, twisted and warped until it’s considered truth. Revealed – Renee Gracie: Fireproof hands the wheel to Renee, allowing her to tell her own story, from her perspective, and reclaim the narrative of her own life. As documentary filmmakers, we are incredibly proud to unleash this remarkable story of female resilience and success into the world."
The film is funded by Screen Australia in association with Screenwest and Lotterywest, with local distribution by Stan, and developed with assistance from Screen Australia.
Stan Original Documentary Revealed – Renee Gracie: Fireproof is now streaming, only on Stan.
Feature image: Supplied.
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