Jet-car racer who drove for Spanaway team dies while trying to break land-speed record

Jet-car speed racer Jessi Combs has died in a crash in Oregon’s Alvord Desert while trying to break a speed record.

The Harney County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Wednesday that Combs died in a crash in a dry lake bed on Tuesday. Sheriff’s Lt. Brian Needham says the cause of the accident is under investigation.

Combs was the driver of the North American Eagle, a Spanaway-area-based project started in 1998 that’s been trying to break the world landspeed record. She posted on her website in October that she reached 483.227 mph in the North American Eagle.

According to Car and Driver, the 39-year-old Combs is widely known in racing circles as the “fastest woman on four wheels” and broke a record in 2013 with a run of 393 mph (632 kph).

Combs was attempting to break the Women’s Land Speed Record of 512 mph (823 kph) set in 1976 by Kitty O’Neil when she died. Jet cars are race cars propelled by jet engines.

The Long Beach, California, resident said on Instagram on Sunday that she wanted to break 512 mph (823 kph).

She wrote, “People say I’m crazy. I say thank you.”

Terry Madden, Combs’ teammate on the North American Eagle racing team, said in an Instagram post Wednesday that he was heartbroken and added a video collage of photos and video clips of Combs with various team members.

“She was the most amazing spirit that I have ever or will ever know,” Madden wrote. “Unfortunately we lost her yesterday in a horrific accident, I was the first one there and trust me we did everything humanly possible to save her!!”

In a statement, Combs’ family said her “most notable dream was being the fastest woman on Earth.”

Combs, who was born in Rapid City, South Dakota, dabbled in snowboarding earlier in life and was also an accomplished artist and craftswoman, according to a biography on North American Eagle’s website.

She studied automotive design and fabrication and appeared as a host on Spike TV’s Extreme 4X4 before a freak accident with a piece of heavy machinery that broke her spine.

After months of rehabilitation, Combs recovered and appeared on and guest hosted a number of TV shows, including Discovery Channel’s “Mythbusters” while honing her skills as a professional driver for movies and commercials.

The Alvord Desert is an extremely remote and sparsely populated region in southeastern Oregon, about 400 miles (643 kilometers) southeast of Portland.

This story was originally published August 28, 2019 at 2:02 PM.