ELKHORN, Wis. — "I started racing go-karts when I was 4 years old. My Dad originally raced motorcycles. But when he stopped racing, my brother got into snowmobiles. And when he stopped racing, I started racing go-karts at four. And I kind of just gradually grew into it."
That's 12-year-old Ava Hanssen, who has her own racing gear.
Lance Allan asks, be honest with me. How cool is it to have your name, have Ava Hanssen Racing and have your own personalized suit as well?
"I have to thank my parents for that one," Ava Hanssen says. "They've gotten me all this stuff. And I have no one to thank but them."
Ava started making a name for herself at less than half her current age.
"When I was about 5 years old, we came to Dousman, Wisconsin, which is now my home track," Hanssen says. "And I started racing here and I was like oh, I've been winning a bunch of club races here. I think I want to go further and go to national races."
Those national races got her to a historic run at the Karting Supernationals.
"I was probably the first female to ever get that high of a ranking at a Supernational race in Las Vegas, Nevada," Hanssen says. "And I think that is pretty amazing for me because I've never gotten anything like that good before."
Sadly, being a female driver can still be a thing.
"I still have some people that don't want to work with me on the track because I'm a female," Hanssen says. "But there's some people that are like oh, I want to sponsor her because she's a female. And I really appreciate those people because they don't see me as just oh, this girl's racing. They see me as a driver."
Now she has open-wheel car racing on her mind.
"I think getting into a Skip Barber racing series school," Hanssen says. "And getting to Formula Ford stuff and Legend Car racing. I feel like that is probably my biggest achievement so far."
With even bigger dreams down the road.
"I wanna take this as something bigger, like end up in F-1, with all the other amazing drivers," Hanssen says.
Ava works out all the time. And gets straight A's. If you couldn't already tell? She's going places, and fast.
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