Jessi Combs
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Jessica Combs (July 27, 1980 – August 27, 2019) was an American professional racer, television personality, and metal fabricator. She set a women's land speed class record (four wheels) in 2013 and broke her own record in 2016. She was known as "the fastest woman on four wheels". She co-hosted the Spike TV show '' Xtreme 4x4'' for more than 90 episodes from 2005 to 2009. Other television shows on which she appeared include '' Overhaulin''', ''
MythBusters ''MythBusters'' is a science entertainment television series created by Peter Rees (producer), Peter Rees and produced by Beyond International in Australia. The series premiered on the Discovery Channel on January 23, 2003. It was broadcast in ...
'', ''The List: 1001 Car Things To Do Before You Die'', ''All Girls Garage'', and
Science Channel Science Channel (often simply branded as Science; abbreviated to SCI) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel features programming focusing on science related to wilderness survival, engineering, manu ...
's ''How to Build... Everything'' in 2016. Combs died after crashing a jet-powered high-speed race car at the Alvord Desert in southeastern Oregon while attempting to beat her four-wheel land speed record. She was posthumously awarded the female land-speed world record by ''
Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, list ...
'' in June 2020.


Early life and education

Combs was born in Rockerville, South Dakota, on July 27, 1980, the daughter of Jamie Combs and Nina Darrington. The family moved to Piedmont, South Dakota, when she was two years old. She had two siblings, Kelly Combs and Danielle Theis, and three step-siblings, Rebekah Hall, Arielle Hall, and Austin Darrington. Combs' great-grandmother was Nina DeBow, a jazz pianist who raced Stanley Steamers. She graduated from Stevens High School in 1998. Combs graduated from WyoTech in 2004, where she attended the Collision and Refinishing Core Program, the Street Rod Fabrication and Custom Fabrication, and High-Performance Powertrain programs. Following her graduation, Combs' first professional job came after the WyoTech marketing department hired her and another student to build a car from the ground up in six months to debut at the Specialty Equipment Marketing Association's show.


Career


Racing

As a professional driver, Combs raced in a range of events and enjoyed many successes. * 2011 – SCORE Baja 1000 – 2nd – Class 10 * 2013 – Set women's
land speed record The land speed record (LSR) or absolute land speed record is the highest speed achieved by a person using a vehicle on land. By a 1964 agreement between the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and Fédération Internationale de M ...
– 398 mph with a top speed of 440 mph * 2014 – Ultra 4 Stampede – 1st – Legends Class * 2014 – Ultra 4 Glen Helen Grand Prix – 2nd – Spec Class * 2014 – Ultra 4 American Rock Sports Challenge – 3rd – Spec Class * 2014 – Ultra 4 Western Region Series – 1st – Spec Class * 2014 – Ultra 4 National Championship – 1st – Spec Class * 2014 – Ultra 4 King of the Hammers – 1st – Spec Class * 2015 – SCORE Baja 1000 – 2nd – Class 7 * 2015 – Rallye Aicha des Gazelles (off-road rally race) – 1st – First Participation – 10th overall * 2016 – Ultra 4 King of the Hammers – 1st – EMC Modified Class * 2017 – Ultra 4 King of the Hammers – 12th – 4400 Class On October 9, 2013, Combs drove the North American Eagle Supersonic Speed Challenger at the Alvord desert, claiming the women's four-wheel
land speed record The land speed record (LSR) or absolute land speed record is the highest speed achieved by a person using a vehicle on land. By a 1964 agreement between the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and Fédération Internationale de M ...
with an official run of 398.954 mph (632 km/h) and a top speed of 440.709 mph (709 km/h). In doing so, she broke the 48-year-old women's land speed record, a run average set by Lee Breedlove in ''Spirit of America - Sonic 1'' in 1965. On September 7, 2016, Combs set a new top speed of driving the other American Eagle. Combs was also a 2014 Ultra 4 Spec Class National Champion with Falken Tire. In 2016, she took first place in King of the Hammers with the Savvy Off Road team in the EMC Modified Class and a 2017 12th-place finish in the Unlimited Class driving the same Stock Mod car.


Television

Combs hosted the SpikeTV television show ''Xtreme 4x4'', a part of the '' Powerblock'', for four years. Following an on-set accident, Combs announced in February 2008 that she would leave the show. In 2009, Combs appeared in 12 episodes of the seventh season of ''
MythBusters ''MythBusters'' is a science entertainment television series created by Peter Rees (producer), Peter Rees and produced by Beyond International in Australia. The series premiered on the Discovery Channel on January 23, 2003. It was broadcast in ...
'' while Kari Byron was on
maternity leave Parental leave, or family leave, is an employee benefit available in almost all countries. The term "parental leave" may include maternity, paternity, and adoption leave; or may be used distinctively from "maternity leave" and "paternity leave ...
. She also appeared on '' Overhaulin'''. Starting in 2011, Combs hosted the
Autoblog Weblogs, Inc. was a blog network that published content on a variety of subjects, including tech news, video games, automobiles, and pop culture. At one point, the network had as many as 90 blogs, although the vast majority of its traffic could be ...
series ''The List: 1001 Car Things To Do Before You Die'' alongside co-host Patrick McIntyre. From 2011 to 2014, Combs served as one of the hosts of ''All Girls Garage'' on Velocity (now Motor Trend network). The basis of the show was women repairing and upgrading new and classic automobiles. In 2012, Combs became a co-host with Chris Jacobs for the sixth season of ''Overhaulin's'' relaunch on the Velocity and Discovery channels. In 2018, Combs appeared on the
Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...
panel show ''Break Room''. Also in 2018, Combs appeared on an episode of '' Jay Leno's Garage'' as Jay Leno's guest driver of a Bugatti Chiron. Released in 2022, ''The Fastest Woman on Earth'' details her career and land speed record attempt, filmed for seven years, beginning in 2013.


Death

Combs died on August 27, 2019, after crashing a jet-powered car while setting a land-speed record as part of the North American Eagle Project on a dry lake bed in the Alvord Desert, Oregon. The crash was caused by a failure of a front wheel, likely caused by hitting an object in the desert, which caused the front wheel assembly to collapse at a speed nearing . The official cause of death was determined to be " blunt-force trauma to the head" occurring prior to the fire that engulfed the race vehicle after the crash. Combs' final run across Oregon's Alvord Desert on August 27 reached , before her crash, which broke the existing women's land speed record of , set in 1976 by Kitty O'Neil at the same location. This record was verified by ''
Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, list ...
'' in June 2020.American jet-car racer and Mythbusters host Jessi Combs posthumously awarded world land-speed record for a woman
ABC/ AP, 2020-06-25


References


External links


The Jessi Combs Foundation

Official Overhaulin'
{{DEFAULTSORT:Combs, Jessi 1980 births 2019 deaths American television personalities American women television personalities Actresses from South Dakota Sportspeople from Rapid City, South Dakota Racing drivers from South Dakota Road incident deaths in Oregon 21st-century American women