Christina: Human trafficking. There are 40 million people in human trafficking, right? That’s modern-day. Ten million of those are kids. I know my mom and I talk about this a lot. We need a movement. This is the only way this changes. If we bring light to it, we shine light in the darkness and collectively say — gosh, we’re not going to stand for people being enslaved at the age of five, whether it’s for labor, sex, or whatever it is! We don’t want to wear these clothes if they’re made off people’s backs being broken and enslaved in Indonesia, right? But that’s going to take a global movement. So for me, I spend so much of my time doing this, and I can’t believe more people don’t do something about this.
Renee: I’d say exactly the same. We need to get people angry about what’s happening in this world. Who is yelling from the rooftops for these children? Who? Why isn’t there a public world outcry? And that’s it. How can we get people to say enough, enough, we’re not going to let this happen?
I had the distinct pleasure of talking to Renée and Christina Brinkerhoff of Valkyrie Racing.
Renée is the founder and World Record breaking driver of Valkyrie Racing. Brinkerhoff has raced on every continent, including Antarctica, on roads never-before traveled by the iconic Porsche 356. Renée became a new driver at 57 years old with no background in cars or racing. In 2013 she prepared a 1956 Porsche 356, assembled a rank novice team, and became an overnight racing phenomenon when she and her team won their class in the notorious Mexican rally, La Carrera Panamericana. Renée went on to become the only woman in history to place in the iconic rally three additional times.
As the passionate founder of Valkyrie Gives, a not-for-profit with the mission to combat child trafficking, Renée and her team have raised nearly $700,000, with every dollar going to vetted frontline organizations around the globe. Using her platform and vision to become a “vehicle” for global change, Renée conceived of the Project 356 World Rally Tour, which endeavored to see one driver and one car race on every continent of the world in the most challenging conditions for both the car and team. With the goal of raising awareness and funds to combat child trafficking, The Valkyrie team began Project 356 in 2017 when they returned to the La Carrera Panamericana as their North American challenge. They went on to race in Targa Tasmania, Tasmania–Australia, Caminos del Inca, Peru–South America, Peking to Paris, 11 countries–Asia and Europe, East African Classic Safari Rally, Kenya & Tanzania–Africa, and Union Glacier, Antarctica. In December 2021, the Project 356 global goal was achieved when Renée and the Valkyrie Racing team completed 356 miles on the blue ice of Antarctica and nearly 20,000 miles globally.
Renée resides in Colorado and believes that as individuals, we are given three gifts — time, talent, and resources –, and she is committed to using all three to end child trafficking.
Christina Brinkerhoff is team photographer & head of operations for Valkyrie Racing, and Valkyrie Gives. In 2018, with a background in film and photography from the USC School of Cinematic Arts, she joined her mom, Renée Brinkerhoff, in the quest to race a 1956 Porsche 356 on all seven continents. This goal, Project 356 World Rally Tour, has taken Christina around the globe capturing classic cars racing in the most extreme environments.
Valkyrie Racing is a vehicle to raise awareness and funds to combat child trafficking through their nonprofit Valkyrie Gives. 100% of funds received by Valkyrie Gives goes directly to support frontline organizations in Kenya, Peru, India, Thailand, and Cambodia — focusing on education, rescue, and rehabilitation.
The Valkyrie team just completed their most extreme challenge: 356 frozen miles in Antarctica. Christina braved sub-zero temps and gale-force winds to capture the Porsche 356 on skis and tracks as it made world history.
Thank you both so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, can each of you share your backstory, your origin story that brought you to this fascinating path?
Renee: In my mid-50s, I realized I’d been telling myself for decades that I was going to race a car one day. When I had that realization, it was something I knew, for my own self-respect, I had to do. There had to be something to it! There was some reason behind it, and I had to go do that thing to find out. So, the decision was made; I’m going to race a car and then go back to my life which finally had time to enjoy some long-awaited personal pursuits. Prior to this, I had spent twenty years home-educating my four children — endeavoring to give them the best education and life possible. This racing thing was just an interruption and something I had to go do.
Knowing nothing about cars or racing and with no background in either, I had a big learning curve ahead of me. While investigating the different types of racing, I heard about rally racing and, specifically, a classic car rally race in Mexico, the La Carrera Panamericana. I thought that sounded perfect. I’ll give it a try, and I found a classic car to race.
The thought of going to Mexico to tick the race box, well, it had a lot of “this will work” elements! I had no idea that I was getting involved in one of the most notorious races in the world, as you’ve probably read about it or know about it. It has a 30% attrition rate. So, 30% of the cars don’t pass the finish line after 2,000 miles and seven days of racing — whether they’ve had a bad accident and can’t be repaired or been put back on a trailer to go home because they’re too afraid or just don’t want the immense danger and difficulty of this race anymore. On my first morning of racing, someone died, then a few days later, several cars went off a cliff, and later one caught on fire, etcetera! You get the plethora of things that can happen in racing, and you get it all in a week, in a very intense fashion.
I jumped into the deep end, not realizing what I was getting into, and I had a complete life metamorphosis, you might say, of realizing that there was this part of me that had been lying dormant for decades. You face every kind of emotion — intense fear, exhilaration, of being on the podium, of doing so well, and then massive failures. In our first year out, with our brand-new team and new car, we made history in that race as a woman driver, placing first in class. Coming out in our debut year, we made history!
After this and other podium successes in the La Carrera Panamericana race, I realized that when I would talk to people, I had a voice. They’d say, “Who are you? What did you say you were doing? And more importantly, why are you doing this?” It was this “why” that got me thinking. During those years racing in Mexico, we would take down gifts — money, school supplies, clothing, and other things for children in need. But always feeling there’s more that we can do- that this just isn’t enough. So a plan was created to take our racing and use it and the car as a vehicle, literally, to make a bigger change in the world, to take the little voice we had and grow it.
So, we came up with Project 356 World Rally Tour, which was to take the car and race it on all seven continents. We knew that in order to have an impact and be heard, we needed to replicate the extreme challenges and difficulties that we had faced in the past races, which had established our voice and given us credibility, a voice that people would listen to. So we set out to find the hardest races we could put the car in. Races where they have never seen this model car participate or never had any classic car participate in. And one which they had never had a woman compete in. We wanted to check as many of those boxes as possible. To make it the most difficult challenge for the car, for me as the driver, the team, et cetera. That’s how we came up with the actual races. We started this challenge in North America when we went back to Mexico for our first race ever, La Carrera Panamericana, and once again, we won our class.
Next, we went to Australia in Tasmania, then South America, and raced in Peru. We then did Peking to Paris, so that was Asia and Europe. Then, we proceeded to Africa, racing in Kenya and Tanzania — and our final challenge was Antarctica. In Antarctica, there is no car racing, so we created a race against the elements. The car was used literally as a vehicle throughout the world to raise awareness and funds to combat child trafficking.
It was at the very time that Project 356 was being conceived, and we were deciding what we could do to help the most in need in this world. I don’t believe in coincidences, and at that time, I had two encounters with child trafficking/child pornography. I was on a tour bus with a man who worked in the FBI, and he proceeded to tell me what he did for a living. He poses as John, a sex client/customer, to find people who were making and using child pornography of children who were too young to speak. These images are being sold, and these children are being trafficked.
They are being raped and videoed, and this goes hand in hand with their trafficking — pornography and child trafficking are tied at the hip. I had no idea about this horrific crime. And I had no idea of the prevalence in our own country and the world at large. He’s the one who opened my eyes to all of this. It was shortly afterward that I was sitting on a bus to pick up a rental car, and I was sitting next to this man who had a photo on his phone. I looked over, and there was a pornographic image of a very young child, and he quickly swiped his phone. I told myself that this was not a coincidence. What is going on? This thing is knocking on my door to help these children, help these children around the world, in our country, and abroad. These are the children who are the most abused in the world. They are the ones whose lives are most destroyed, and yet children are the very ones in our society who should be given the greatest protection and care. And it seems so odd and yet providential because with this desire for extreme racing and then this extreme cause — they just all merged into this thing that I believe is so marvelous. In addition to being a voice and raising funds for trafficked children — to date, we have raised about $700,000 since 2017 — my daughter, Christina, and I do undercover work to find traffickers and the children they traffick and give evidence to law enforcement. I don’t want to just read statistics on the problem but need to actually see with my own eyes and with my own hands to make a difference.
And the other unique thing about Valkyrie Gives is that all the dollars raised — every one — goes out. The racing is funded separately, and it’s sponsored. In Valkyrie Gives, we have no overhead or salaries, every dollar goes to frontline organizations that we vet, and we personally get to know the people with whom we’re going to be supporting. And this year, since Covid appears to be behind us, we are able to make our site visits. We believe we’re stewards of every dollar. We have to be! And every dollar has to have the greatest impact possible for trafficked children.
Frankly, I’m so inspired by what you just said. I can’t imagine. You’re like a modern-day superhero going into danger zones to rescue kids. Are you ever in real danger?
Renee: Of course! It’s always different levels of danger, but of course, you’re dealing with the underworld. You’re dealing with criminals. You’re dealing with people for whom this is their livelihood. They don’t want you to disrupt their business. So yeah, you’re a target for them. That’s why you have undercover names, and try to keep that cover and be smart. Just like racing, it’s measured risk.
Christina, how about you?
Christina: I’m the youngest of four kids, and while my mom was having this moment, I was doing other things. I went to USC film school, and I was working in Los Angeles. I was going through our 2012 footage, which is the first race my mom did, and I got a call. My mom said, “I’m going to go through this race.” I filmed and photographed her first race, and she got the bug — I certainly got the bug too! I was filming and photographing but wasn’t racing. It’s the most immersive extreme experience to this date that I’ve gone through.
I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and so my life took a sharp left turn, which in hindsight, was just a total gift. It’s hard to describe how amazing that was for me because my body arrested me. I was 30, and it just stopped me in my tracks in every way.
So, I had a big year of rebuilding my life in every way. I had extreme dysfunction, and I was experiencing disability from the disease. So in 2018, while I was an agent, I was talking about my mom’s story, trying to connect with her because I knew how special it was, but then in 2018, she said, “Will you come down?” She was doing about 2000 miles through the Andes of Peru, and I came down as a camera operator.
I came on full time and took over the film, and we did Peking into Paris together. That was 36 days from Beijing to Paris, through 13 countries, and then the East African Safari Rally, which was through Kenya and Tanzania. Then Antarctica, which was in December, but through that whole process of working with my mom, Mom’s been this incredible partner, in a way. It’s just this amazing blessing where we have different strengths, and we complement each other.
Could each of you share one of the most interesting stories that have occurred in the course of all the different races you’ve done or in the course of your rescue work?
Christina: In the rescue work for the Valkyrie, we were deployed in April to Southeast Asia, and it was the first time I’d been vetted. So, it was the first time I could go and actually do the work. My mom had been a couple of times on other deployments in different countries, and we ended up going together — which was a strange, unique, and amazing experience to go through being in a brothel with your mom. [Laughs] I think I may be the only person who’s had the experience working undercover next to her. So, I had this experience where I found a minor and this young 15-year-old girl before she’d ever been sold before and that experience… It’s so pivotal because that girl was rescued a couple of weeks after we left the country.
So, I had this full circle experience, not only what it is like to do this kind of work on the ground but to see somebody rescued from that. That was a huge experience for me, and I think for my mom too, in terms of actually seeing the lives of people that you’re helping. So from that perspective, I think that that has touched me the most in the work that we’ve done in terms of my first hand. Seeing it with my eye, the evidence we were able to gather led to the arrest of the traffickers and then also her escaping that life right before it was too late.
Another interesting story happened to me on the second to last day of racing in the East African Safari Rally. We were back in Kenya, and I took my camera and started walking down the road toward this mountain. I looked to my left, and there were a bunch of Kenyans in green uniforms, and the trees. They looked at me, but they didn’t say anything.
I kept walking for about 40 minutes by myself, and about 3 minutes after the rally car passed me, the organizer’s car came racing up, and they go over a hundred miles an hour. They were racing the race, doing the sweep, and all their organizational stuff. They raced up, they stopped, they passed me. They reversed. They stopped there and asked, “Are you okay?” I said, “No, my team is back there. I’m going to walk it back. I don’t need a ride.” I turned, and they drove off very quickly. I turned back on the road to keep walking, and I looked to my left, and there was a huge female lion! Maybe not even 10 yards from me, and the lion was running away from me. I believe that car saved my life because it made tons of noise. Then my mom, in her view, had seen two female lions to the right of their car after they had passed to me. So, I have some GoPro footage of the lions by the car, so it’s possible that I almost got eaten by a lion, but thankfully I never have to find out.
Renee: I will say some of the best memories were when we were racing and able to be competitive. In 2014 in Mexico, we either got 13th or 14th overall of the 75 or 80 cars competing. You have to realize I’m in the lowest horsepower category with maybe 125 horse pounds, and we’re racing against cars up to five and 600 horse pounds. That year was the rainiest, foggiest year that they’d had, and people were choosing not to compete on some of those race days because of the added danger. It’s all about risk/reward. We were willing to dial up the risk- and we reaped a big reward! So that was one of our best accomplishments, at least for me personally.
Some of the most impacting memories are the kids, grandmothers, mothers, aunties, etcetera, waiting hours for us to come in after a race day and thanking us. Thanking us for doing this incredibly difficult and dangerous thing that they rarely ever see women doing, for giving them hope in their own lives that they can accomplish something big, that they can overcome great barriers, and have new courageous paths. Paths that maybe those around them and those that have come before them haven’t been able to have. Those are very encouraging moments. And just having that involvement firsthand, of being literally boots on the ground combating child trafficking, having that personal touch with your own eyes and ears, having that real insight into a global scourge. Seeing those children and seeing their trafficker with your own eyes and doing something about it. That is incredibly rewarding!
Are there five things you wish somebody had told you before you began this journey as a racecar driver?
Renee: I wish I could have learned how to drive my car and learn to race on real roads without having to wait until I actually got in a race. The car was always being prepared, basically in the shop, because it was about limited time and limited money. The car would literally be in the shop getting prepared up to the night before we had to put her on the trailer to get to Mexico. For many years, I didn’t even get to test the car beforehand, so you’d get down there and have to figure out how your car was going to feel and drive in the middle of a very dangerous race. So basically, I didn’t drive it the whole year. My seat time was race time! I was always chasing that, always trying to get to know the feel of my car. And how to push it and how it would feel with mechanical problems or mistakes I was making. It was “Oops, we almost went off over there,” and “Don’t do that again!” So, if I would’ve just had the opportunity to practice in that car and drive that car to get to know it and to get to feel it, other than when you’re pushing the envelope, and you’ve got a lot of high-risk things happening when you’re behind the wheel that can seriously come to bite you at any moment.
Christina: I think for me personally, to not apply so much pressure on myself and just enjoy where you are. I am done with that! I mean, I know that my mom and I have been in a tent in Mongolia together, in a tent in Antarctica, and in a $6 room! Something like there’s been these amazing moments where I know we’ve had recognition for it, but I think I’ve got a little perfectionist in me. There’s so much before those moments. There’s so much tax and so much self-pressure that’s applied. I think when I look back in life, I should have just been a little easier on myself. You are where you are because you’re supposed to be there, and everything’s going to be okay.
Amazing. This is our final question. Both of you are people of enormous influence because of all that you’ve accomplished. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the greatest amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be? Because you never know what your idea can inspire.
Christina: Human trafficking. There are 40 million people in human trafficking, right? That’s modern-day. Ten million of those are kids. I know my mom and I talk about this a lot. We need a movement. This is the only way this changes. If we bring light to it, we shine light in the darkness and collectively say — gosh, we’re not going to stand for people being enslaved at the age of five, whether it’s for labor, sex, or whatever it is! We don’t want to wear these clothes if they’re made off people’s backs being broken and enslaved in Indonesia, right? But that’s going to take a global movement. So for me, I spend so much of my time doing this, and I can’t believe more people don’t do something about this.
Renee: I’d say exactly the same. We need to get people angry about what’s happening in this world. Who is yelling from the rooftops for these children? Who? Why isn’t there a public world outcry? And that’s it. How can we get people to say enough, enough, we’re not going to let this happen?
We are very blessed that prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person that you would like to have a power lunch with? Because we could tag them, and maybe you could connect.
Renee: I am going to say Elon Musk because of what we’ve done with this car, and the vision we have of what we can still do with this car, to continue to use it as a vehicle, to be a voice for change, to affect the lives of children that are being trafficked and to raise money to rescue and restore them. You need somebody who’s got people’s credibility, who has a big vision and big passion and wants to affect change in this world.
It takes money in this world to actually help these children and make real change. I ask myself, “How can we rescue more children? What kind of care are they getting after they’ve been taken away from their heinous trafficker? How are their lives going to be restored? Yes, they’ll be put in a safe facility, but we can do so much better than that! We can rescue more kids, and we can restore them so much more to actually give them back their lives.
So, how can our readers further follow your work online?
Renee
Our Instagram is Valkyrieracing . If you go to our website, you can join our newsletter. Our Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn is where we spread a lot of the message of what’s going on and then through the newsletter, which is a more personal thing that we put out every couple of months. And if you want to donate, you can go to Valkyrieracing.com. One hundred percent of the money that comes in goes out. And we’re so honored to be able to do that.
Instagram: Valkyrie_Racing
Website: ValkyrieRacing.com
Nonprofit: ValkyrieGives.org
Okay. Amazing. Amazing. I want to thank both of you for your generous time. You’ve been so generous. Your stories were really mind-boggling, and I’m excited to share this with our readers.
Renee: No, thank you for your time, for listening and talking to us, and for your heart. We’re so grateful. Thank you so much.
