Renee dares to dream
Developing driver Renee Gracie has her goals set high, revealing she'd like to follow in the footsteps of fellow Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 wild card driver Simona De Silvestro and compete overseas.
Gracie, 20, was today revealed as half of the all-female pairing to take on Mount Panorama in 2015 and '16 and is thrilled to have such an opportunity so early in her racing career.
Gracie cut her teeth in touring cars with two years in the Porsche Carrera Cup, before this season transitioning to the V8 Supercars Dunlop Series.
While Gracie campaigns a Ford Falcon in the development category, she will steer a Prodrive prepared FG X at Mount Panorama in the 1000. She is yet to test the new generation V8 Supercar - but as a wild card entry, the team will be allowed two test days ahead of the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000.
"Rookie year in the Dunlop Series - I never thought I'd get this opportunity for another couple of years," Gracie told v8supercars.com.au.
"It means the world ... I'm going to put everything I can into it to get the best result. It might be the first and only chance that I get, so it's really important to me."
Pairing with De Silvestro is the icing on the cake for Gracie, who looks up to the 26-year old Swiss IndyCar driver, and hopes to replicate her success in years to come.
"It's really exciting to be involved with someone I see as taking the path that I really would like to take ultimately," Gracie said.
"Simona started in go karting just like myself, and she's had a pretty impressive open wheel career. Now she's in Indy Car, which is probably the ultimate goal for me and absolutely dream. So to be with someone who has actually been in an IndyCar, has touched one and even just looked at one is pretty impressive!
"She's been on the podium and had over 70 race starts - and she's only 26. It's quite exciting and amazing to think I can talk to her, ask for help or advice ... the fact that I'm pairing with someone from overseas doing pretty much what I want to do is pretty impressive."
While the sky is the limit for Gracie as she considers her racing future, her immediate focus is on the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 and the preceding September test days.
In the past wild card entries have performed well, with Prodrive Racing's Super Black entry last year finishing 11th, with Super Black and 19-year old Andre Heimgartner full-time in the Championship in 2015.
"We'll both be debuting [in the new gen car] for the first time - technically I have a little bit more V8 experience, but it's going to be a massive learning experience for both of us," Gracie said.
"I think we'll get a lot of people who will say we can't do it," she added.
"But we'll get a lot of support. It's going to be one of those weekends where we're just going to have to focus on ourselves.
"It's happened before, people can start last and win the race - it happened last year with Paul Morris and Chaz [Mostert].
"We are going to run our own race, set our own goals ... we've got the test days, a lot of things to come before we start focusing on the weekend itself. There's a lot of little milestones to overcome beforehand."
Prodrive team boss Tim Edwards described Gracie as "very capable" and for the 20-year old, being part of the team leading the V8 Supercars Championship and the Dunlop Series she competes regularly in, is of huge benefit.
Gracie will steer her Fujitsu Falcon at Mount Panorama, which hosts the Dunlop Series' next round. The category stages a 250km mini-enduro, which will give Gracie some beneficial miles around the incredible 6.213km track ahead of her main game debut.
