Some little girls want to gallop on ponies and plant flowers in their hair.

Other girls want to become prima ballerinas.

Lindsay Brewer wanted to drive race cars, and she’s been leaving everyone in the dust. Brewer is nationally ranked, and is working her way toward being an IndyCar racer.

“I competed nationally, and I ranked top 10 in nationals for three years,” says Brewer, “which is a really good achievement for me.”

It all started when she was 11 years old.

“I was at my brother’s birthday party riding on the slow go-carts,” Brewer recalled, “but then I saw these fast cars and was like, ‘oh, I want to try that!’”

Brewer excelled instantly.

“I tried the kart, and I ended up being faster than the person that they let me borrow it from,” said Brewer. “I got hooked on it, I loved it, and I’ve been karting ever since.”

Before long, Lindsay Brewer was dominating her races.

“I did my first race when I was 12,” Brewer said. “In karting, I was the regional mountain champion in my first year, which was really cool because I had just gotten into it.”

As she’s gotten older, Brewer trains more and more. Driving requires rigid mental focus, upper body strength, and an intimate knowledge of the car being driven, all of which require time and dedication to cultivate.

“It’s kind of hard to go out every single day to the racetrack,” Brewer said. “I need help; I can’t lift my own cart, so I work out 4-5 days a week training at the gym. It really helps if you’re strong in the upper body.”

Right now, it’s off season, so training is less of a time commitment.

Brewer carts “around once every week if I’m lucky, you know, to keep up with my driving. But I really don’t have a bunch of races during this season. If it’s on-season, I cart 2-3 times a week and I go out to my track.”

Her first race is next month, so she will be spending more hours at the track in the near future.

This year, Brewer has finally made the transition from kart to car.

“I did karting (it’s like the primary step for racing in formula cars) since I was 12 years old to this year,” Brewer said. “This year, I started racing in F2000 cars.”

In order to actually become an IndyCar driver, Brewer will have to graduate to increasingly more complicated cars and competition.

There are four main steps, and they call the whole process the Mazda Road to Indy.

“The first step is USS F2000,” said Brewer, which is where she currently resides. “The next step is Pro Mazda, and after that is Indy Lights. After those steps, you finally can become an IndyCar driver.”

Brewer is in the primary step on her journey, but she certainly has many races ahead of her.

Despite all that experience, Brewer still gets the butterflies prior to each race.

“When I first go out on track, to do the warm up lap before we line up for the race, I’m nervous,” Brewer admitted. “I always get the jitters.”

Each race has its usual nuances.

“I warm up my tires. We line up, and I’m like, ‘oh god’,” Brewer said about her pre-race routine. “It  happens every race. Once the green light goes (or the green flag depending on the race), then all my nerves go away.

“I just focus, and snap into it,” Brewer said. “I know what I have to do. I just push for it. It’s an adrenaline rush. All the fear just goes away.”

While successful, Brewer’s racking career has not been without some turbulence.

“I would get discouraged sometimes because I ‘m a girl, and I race primarily against males,” Brewer said. “When people would try to bring me down and say I couldn’t do anything, I proved to myself that I could do it. When I achieve those things, I believe that I could really push towards my dreams and I believe in myself more.”

With each passing day and each race, Brewer gets increasingly closer to her dreams.

“My ultimate goal is to become a female IndyCar racer,” Brewer said. “I want to compete in the Indy 500, and, hopefully, one day win.”