Meet the youngest female race car driver in Wisconsin

ELKHORN, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Formula One is the world’s most prestigious international motor racing competition. To get to that level, it's often years of practice and training to climb the ladder within the series.

Ava Hanssen--one of the youngest female drivers in Wisconsin took our crews to Road America in Elkhart Lake where she trained, hoping one day, she makes it to the big leagues.

"One day my dad brought me to a racetrack in Sugar River in Brodhead, Wisconsin, and after days of begging him to give me a car, he finally gave in," Hanssen said.

At a very young age, Ava learned her dad Tim was into motorcycle racing; and at the age of four, she asked to try Go-Kart racing.

"Yeah, I raced a little bit, kind of local stuff, nothing nationally like what she does, so, yeah, there was the competitiveness in me to want to have her race," Tim Hanssen said.

By age six, she was already traveling out of state--spending Thursdays and Fridays practicing, to then be able to compete on the weekends.

"I just fell in love with it, I fell in love with the speed, competition and adrenaline," Ava explained.

Many of the top race car drivers in the world started in this F-1600 series, often called FF or Formula Ford.

"I'm in like that zone where, I'm like, a step below the Formula 4 car," she said.

It's a non-winged purpose-built single seat race car that was introduced to the U.S. in 1969 and is still considered a training ground for those who, like Ava, want to make this a life-long career.

"I've missed around 200 hours of school in like 6th grade, 200 in 7th grade but my teachers and principals are really lenient," she said.

When the 13-year-old is not racing, she's catching up on schoolwork and training.

"It involves a lot of working out, simulator practice like on an AI track," Ava added. "A lot of pressure on me I feel, like, to try and like prove my name and that females can be a big part of the sport too."

Hanssen believes she currently holds the title of youngest female motorsport driver in Wisconsin.

"I feel like people always look down on me because I'm a female and they think that I'm not as high on their level like them," she said. "The people that don't look down on me and actually work with me, I'm really thankful for those people."

Drivers in this series range from ages 13 to 70, but because it can get so costly, race car drivers often look to sponsors for help.

"To run the series that we're doing with the entry fees, renting the car, travel, you're probably about $150,000 to run eight or nine races," said her father, Tim Hanssen.

The family told CBS 58 News that it's been particularly difficult for local companies to take the teen seriously

Out on the city streets, Ava is not old enough to have a valid driver's license, but with a racing license on the track, she's able to travel about 130 MPH.

"On the grid, it's like a bunch of butterflies but the as soon as you get on the track it's just, everything unimportant goes to the back of your mind, and everything more important comes to the front," she said.

In terms of safety, her father said it's just like any other sport where accidents can cause mild fractures to more severe and sometimes life-threatening injuries.

"The car has a custom-built seat that holds you in, it has custom harnesses and then you have all your protection gear, your helmet has to be certified, you have a neck brace, your fire suit, shoes, gloves, head sock," Tim Hanssen explained.

"In my Go Karts, I flipped like three times," Ava said giggling.

Luckily, as of now, Ava has not experienced a serious injury.

The teen and her dad recently came up with a 'Driving Awareness' campaign to highlight three local nonprofits she holds near and dear.

"Just Giants Rescue is a nonprofit organization that rescues and rehabilitates giant breed dogs; Go Baby Go Children's Hospital Wisconsin is a hospital that helps kids that aren't very independent and don't really have much mobility and makes custom-motorized cars to help them," Ava said. "And Children's Alopecia Project is, they take kids with hair loss with any form of Alopecia, and they change their goal from growing hair to growing confidence."

In total, so far, she's raised about a thousand dollars to help those organizations. Whether it's racing or giving back, she's not stopping anytime soon.