Jessi Combs, a popular racing car driver and television host, died at the age of 36 while attempting to break a dangerous land-speed record on Tuesday, her family said in a statement earlier today.
@thejessicombs
The tragedy
Combs was attempting to beat American Kitty O’Neil’s 512 miles-per-hour women’s land-speed record, set in 1976. According to Autoblog, she was aiming to reach 619 miles per hour on a dry lake bed in the Alvord Desert, Oregon.
Combs even teased her preparations in an Instagram post just three days before the attempt, saying that “It may seem a little crazy to walk directly into the line of fire… those who are willing, are those who achieve great things. People say I’m crazy. I say thank you ;)”
Though the details of the crash have not been released, Combs’ close friend and colleague said that the team “did everything humanly possible to save her!!”
Her work
Combs was involved in a number of projects that launched her to fame among the racing car enthusiast and beyond. Though she began her career building hot-rod cars, inheriting her father’s mechanical engineering mindset, she quickly reached international popularity by appearing on a number of shows, such as MythBusters, All Girls Garage, Overhaulin’, Truck U, Science Channel’s How to Build… Everything, and Spike TV’s Xtreme 4×4. One of her greatest accomplishments, however, came when she earned the title of “fastest woman on four wheels” by hitting 398 miles per hour in the 2013 North American Eagle Supersonic Speed Challenger.
@thejessicombs“Jessi’s most notable dream was to become the fastest woman on Earth, a dream she had been chasing since 2012,” the family’s statement read. “Combs was one of the rare dreamers with the bravery to turn those possibilities into reality, and she left this earth driving faster than any other woman in history.”
(Cover photo: @thejessicombs)
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