Streaming service Stan premiered Renee Gracie: Fireproof on Sunday, the 100-minute documentary unleashing a number of explosive claims from her time in the Supercars system.
Most of those claims were levelled at Supercars itself, however several key figures from Gracie’s career were also featured in ways that could be described as unfavourable.
Among them was renowned driver coach Morris whose Paul Morris Motorsport outfit fielded Gracie in the Dunlop Series in 2015 and 2016.
According to the documentary, Gracie didn’t have a dedicated race engineer during her time at PMM.
“The cracks started to form relatively quickly,” she says in the show.
“I didn’t have a driver training coach, I didn’t have an engineer, I just had Paul. It just wasn’t enough for me because I was learning these cars.
“I wanted more information, I wanted to see my times and I can actively try to be better while I’m in the car.
“I complained about it a little bit and said I needed more help. He was like, ‘what you’re asking for is too much, and you shouldn’t need that to be a better driver’.”
Gracie also claims that during qualifying for the Super2 support races at the 2015 Adelaide 500 that Morris deliberately turned off her dash.
“We went out for qualifying and that was my first time being at a track racing a Supercar,” she says.
“When I exited pit lane the dash went blank. I could see nothing, I had no idea what gear I was in, couldn’t see when to shift gears, you can’t see if there’s a warning.
“I was radioing straight away, ‘no dash, what’s going on? Should I come in?’. No response, no reply. I remember feeling confused and flustered.
“Paul was the one who got back to me saying, ‘yep, I made it like that for a reason, just go for it and fucking press on’. It was programmed so I could see nothing once I was out of the pits.
“When I hoped out of the car I walked straight over to [manager] Chris [Jewell, and said], ‘he turned the fucking dash off, I couldn’t see anything’. I just lost it.
“Paul came over as I was blowing up. He said, ‘all the good drivers don’t need it so you don’t need it. You don’t need numbers to tell you what to do and how to go fast. you should just want to go fast’.”
Morris, however, refutes both the claim that she didn’t have dedicated engineering support, and the accusation regarding the dash blackout.
According to Morris, Gracie had experienced engineer Ian Walburn dedicated to her car for that season as well as data engineer Chris Archer who worked on both the PMM entries.
That there were two PMM entries also casts serious doubts over whether Morris could have responded to Gracie on the radio during that session, given he was in the other car.
“In 2015 her engineer was Ian [Wally] Walburn, very respected, and her data engineer was Chris Archer, who was across both the cars,” Morris confirmed to Speedcafe.
“Wally was on the radio to her, not me. Because I was driving the other car.
“I don’t recall a dash issue. If she had a dash issue and it went blank, it wouldn’t have been anything that was done purposely.
“You need the driver to be monitoring the vitals of the car at the every least. If you get an alarm and the dash isn’t on and you smoulder an engine down… that’s not something a competent race team would do.”
As for the alleged conversation about good drivers not needing a working dash, Morris added: “It’s not something I would say. The technology is there and you need to be embracing it and using it.”
Morris was invited to take part in the filming of the documentary but declined.
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