Fastest woman on four wheels died trying to set a new land-speed record

In her quest to set land-speed records, Jessi Combs looked to the sky. The vehicle in which she barrelled through the Oregon desert travelled as fast as an aircraft. In fact, it once was. Her project team, North American Eagle, took an abandoned, graffiti-covered F-104A fighter jet, renovated the fuselage, clipped the wings, added aluminium wheels, upgraded the engine to 45,500 horsepower and strapped Combs into the cockpit, the bright-red machine kicking up a dense dust trail as it streaked into the distance.

She died, aged 39, in what was reportedly a fiery crash in the Alvord Desert, a dry lake bed in Oregon, while attempting to break the female landspeed record of just over

825kmh, held since 1976 by the ‘‘Deaf Daredevil’’, Kitty O’neil, and set at the same location. Combs was pronounced dead at the scene.

Combs, an energetic and upbeat television presenter with a hands-on style, had devoted much of her 30s to becoming the quickest driver in the world. Her aim was first to beat the time set by O’neil, then pursue her ultimate goal: the overall world land-speed record of almost 1228kmh, achieved by Andy Green, a Briton, in the Nevada desert in 1997. Combs could, at least, claim to be the fastest woman on four wheels; O’neil’s vehicle had only three.

The four-wheeled benchmark was set in 2013 as Combs was recorded at 632kmh. She also drove the vehicle in a test run in September 2018, reaching 777kmh before a lock mechanism failed, a door blew off and debris damaged the engine.

The records she targeted were determined by the average pace over two short runs, but Combs also relished driving for much lengthier spells. In 2015 she took part in the Rallye Aicha des Gazelles du Maroc, a nineday, all-female off-road competition in the Sahara in which participants must guide themselves using a map and compass rather than satellite navigation. She also secured high-placed finishes in the Baja 1000, a notoriously gruelling off-road race through the Baja California peninsula in Mexico.

In the latter race, Combs drove a 2017 Bugatti Chiron – one of the world’s fastest and costliest production cars, with a limited top speed of 420kmh and a price tag of US$2.6 million – for an episode of Jay Leno’s Garage, a motoring series with the former talk show host. They handled it with relative restraint, however, mindful of the risk of attracting the unwelcome attention of the highway patrol, let alone what an accident might do to the insurance premium.

Jessica Michelle Combs was born into a family of car enthusiasts near Rapid City, South Dakota. She learnt to drive as a young girl while sitting on her father’s lap and steering the wheel, on one occasion sending