Renee Gracie seals GT World Challenge Australia AM title
- RACERS
- Sep 12
- 6 min read
Renee Gracie secured her second GT World Challenge Australia title – this time in the Am class – after a dominant season in which the driver of the #181 Audi R8 LMS Evo2 collected seven class wins from ten races, clinching the title with a round to spare.
Renee Gracie secured her second GT World Challenge Australia title – this time in the Am class – after a dominant season in which the driver of the #181 Audi R8 LMS Evo2 collected seven class wins from ten races, clinching the title with a round to spare.
Gracie, who made her return to racing in 2023 in the SRO-sanctioned series, had already claimed the Trophy class title in her comeback season, in another utterly dominant campaign that saw the Australian driving the first-generation Audi R8 GT3 to eight class wins in just as many entered races.
Gracie’s career in motorsport started in 2014 when she stepped up from karting to the Porsche Carrera Cup Australia. In 2015, she would achieve her first top-ten finishes before switching to the Supercars Dunlop Series, where she was the first full-time female driver in 14 years. As part of an all-female line-up, Gracie teamed up with Indy 500 star Simona De Silvestro at the Bathurst 1000 in both 2015 and 2016, finishing a respectable 14th.
In 2017 Gracie moved to the Super2 Series, before a six-year hiatus that saw the Australian making her racing return in the GT World Challenge Australia. In her first campaign of GT3 competitions, Gracie scored 200 points with eight race wins out of eight races in the Trophy class, competing in an older-generation Audi R8 and claiming her first title.
Upgrading her machinery in 2024, Renee stepped up to the Pro-Am class, sharing the Audi R8 LMS Evo2 with Paul Stokell in a Melbourne Performance Centre entry. The duo scored eight top-ten finishes, with a best of fifth overall at Phillip Island and at the season finale in Bathurst, together with six more sixth-place finishes. They ended eighth in the standings, with Gracie collecting valuable experience and often running within the top ten in her stints.
Having been recategorized to Bronze in 2025, an opportunity arose to run a solo campaign in the Am class. Returning to the Melbourne Performance Centre Audi, Gracie seized the opportunity and was the protagonist of another superb season. After a second place in class at the Phillip Island opener, she soon clinched victory in Race 2 – which was also her first overall top ten in 2025 – before going on a streak of five consecutive wins, sweeping the weekends at Sydney Motorsport Park and Queensland Raceway. These great runs included another P10 at Sydney and two seventh-place results overall at Queensland, where Gracie continued to run close to the Pro-Am entries.
At Sandown, Gracie was again twice in the overall top ten but just lost out on her sixth consecutive win in Race 1, as Schoots/Woodman in the #16 Mercedes managed to get by. Her next win, however, was just one day away, as Gracie returned on top of the podium in Race 2 – thus getting closer and closer to securing her Am class title as the series headed to The Bend for its penultimate round.
The penultimate event of the season at The Bend’s international layout was a challenging test. Gracie had a great qualifying session and had the chance to wrap up the Am class title fight that weekend after a remarkable campaign. Starting fifth overall in Race 1 and from class pole position, she began the weekend on the right foot, lining up one row ahead of her closest class rival, the #47 Mercedes of Koundouris/Koundouris in eighth overall.
Starting on the inside, Gracie held fifth overall with a good launch, with Koundouris up into seventh, while Donaldson in the #111 Mercedes went off into the gravel on the second lap but rejoined. Despite the Pro-Am Audi of Brooks slotting in between, Gracie continued to hold the Am class lead comfortably and remained less than a second off the group of Pro-Am cars ahead. Over the next few laps, she closed in on the fourth-placed Ferrari of Schutte, putting him under pressure with very strong lap times that also allowed her to pull away from the cars behind by lap four.
One lap later, disaster struck for the overall race leader Talbot in the #1 Aston Martin, who went off into the gravel and made contact with the tyre barriers. He was able to rejoin but dropped to fifth, with Gracie climbing into fourth overall, still comfortably leading the Am class.
Soon after, however, drama struck for Renee Gracie as well, as she went slightly wide and dropped a wheel off track, spinning and luckily avoiding the wall. She rejoined but had now lost the Am lead and dropped to eighth overall, with Koundouris moving up into sixth.
Gracie regrouped and returned to competitive lap times, around five seconds down and needing to recover to catch the #55 Mercedes. With 30 minutes left on the clock, Renee pitted for the mandatory stop from second in class, with Koundouris also pitting on the same lap. After the round of pit stops, Gracie faced a bigger margin to recover, but she retained a solid 12-second advantage to the car behind.
At the end of the pit window, Gracie was in P10 overall and gaining ground again, with the Pro drivers making their way back up the order. The #181 Audi continued to close in on her class competitor, although not enough to catch the #47 Mercedes. Nevertheless, she managed the race well, and while Schoots gained a few tenths in the final laps, Gracie was never under threat and brought home second place in class and eleventh overall in the first race of the weekend at The Bend.
Victory had just slipped away after a small mistake, but the chance to wrap up the title remained alive the following day.
On Sunday, Gracie started P9 overall, with one grid slot empty ahead of her as the D’Alberto Lamborghini started from pit lane due to a brake issue – and she held pole position in the Am Cup, aiming to seal the deal and the title in Race 2.
At lights out, Gracie made a clean start and held ninth overall and the top Am class position ahead of Koundouris. The #47 Mercedes remained close, only six tenths behind, before both were caught by the recovering Pro-Am Lamborghini of D’Alberto, who had started last. Gracie, looking at the bigger picture, didn’t over-defend and allowed the Lamborghini through, focusing instead on her class battle with Koundouris keeping up the pace. Schoots also joined the leading Am class trio in the #16 Mercedes, but Gracie was able to gain a few tenths over the next laps. The top three remained within one second.
As the battle for second intensified behind her, Gracie gained some breathing space, with the gap slowly but steadily extending to 1.5 seconds and then two seconds as the pit window approached. She pitted for her mandatory stop with 29 minutes to go from the class lead and rejoined still ahead of her Am class competitors, although Woodman in the #16 Mercedes had jumped ahead of the #47 of Koundouris. In the middle of the pit stop cycle, third-placed overall Alex Peroni retired in the #266 Audi with a power issue, but the race stayed green.
Gracie, meanwhile, extended her advantage to 7.4 seconds over Woodman as the Pro-Am drivers completed their stops. Once the pit window closed, however, race control deployed the safety car for Peroni’s stricken Audi, and the neutralization wiped out her advantage with 19 minutes remaining.
At the restart for the final 15 minutes, Gracie cautiously worked her way past a lapped car while defending from Woodman. She retained the lead and even managed to overtake Deitz, putting a Pro-Am car between herself and her closest Am rival. Meanwhile, Wyatt’s #77 Ferrari was tagged into a spin by the #1 Aston Martin – which later received a 15-second penalty – and dropped down the order, promoting Gracie to seventh overall.
From there, Renee pulled away once again, creating a comfortable gap in the final five minutes. With Koundouris running second ahead of Woodman, Gracie stretched her lead further and crossed the finish line with the Am class victory, sealing the 2025 AM class title.
With one round still to spare – at Hampton Downs, New Zealand, on 1–2 November – Renee Gracie has already been crowned GT World Challenge Australia Am champion: it is her second GT3 title and wraps up a remarkably solid solo season, as she now looks ahead to a potential new challenge in 2026.