Jessi Combs was a remarkable racing driver who had a successful and diverse career in various events and challenges. She competed in the Baja 1000, a grueling off-road race in Mexico, in 2011. She drove a Class 10 buggy with a Ford Ecoboost engine and a custom-built chassis, with Martin Christensen as her co-driver. She faced several challenges and obstacles, such as flat tires, broken shocks, dust storms, and crashes, but this didn't stop her determination and passion. She finished second in her class on the 692-mile course in 20 hours and 39 minutes, with an average speed of 33.5 mph. She also participated in the Ultra 4 King of the Hammers, a desert race that combines rock crawling and high-speed racing. She raced in the Ultra 4 King of the Hammers for the first time in 2014. She won the Spec 4700 class and became the first female to ever place first at any Ultra 4 event. She finished the 165-mile course in 5 hours and 50 minutes, with an average speed of 28.3 mph. She returned to the Ultra 4 King of the Hammers in 2016, racing in the 4400 class, and finished 18th. She did not throw in the towel; she returned to the tracks again in 2017, finishing 12th out of more than 100 entries. She also raced in the Rallye Aicha des Gazelles, an all-women rally in Morocco that tests navigation and driving skills, and won the first participation category and placed tenth overall in 2015.
While Jessi achieved success with the Baja and Ultra 4 King of the Hammers and the Rally racing events, it was her participation in the races with the North American Eagle Speed Challenger that would put her name on the map. Jessi Combs and the Speed Challenger were a remarkable duo that pushed the limits of speed and engineering. They shared a common passion for racing and breaking records, and they worked together to achieve their goals. Jessi Combs was the driver of the Speed Challenger, a jet-powered car that was modified from a Lockheed F-104A-10 Starfighter jet fighter aircraft. The speed challenger was the result of a collaboration between Canadian and US engineers, pilots, and mechanics who wanted to break the land speed record of 763 mph set by the ThrustSSC in 1997. The car was 17.1 meters long and weighed 13,000 pounds. It was powered by a General Electric LM1500 turbojet engine with an afterburner, which could produce up to 52,000 hp. The car had four braking systems: high-speed air brakes, high-speed drogue parachutes, low-speed drogue parachutes, and an anti-skid neodymium rare-earth magnet eddy-current brake.
Combs joined the North American Eagle Supersonic Speed Challenger team as a driver in 2013. That same year, on October 9th, at the Alvord Desert, Jessi Combs claimed the women's four-wheel land speed record with an official run of 398.954 mph and a top speed of 440.709 mph. In doing so, she broke the 48-year-old women's land speed record, a 308.506 mph run average set by Lee Breedlove in Spirit of America: Sonic 1 in 1965. Then, on September 7, 2016, Combs set a new top speed of 477.59 mph and was dubbed the fastest woman on four wheels. In 2019, Jessi Combs and the speed challenger made history by breaking the female land-speed record in more than 40 years. They achieved a speed of 522.783 mph at the Alvord Desert in Oregon, surpassing the previous record of 512.7 mph set by Kitty O'Neil in 1976. However, tragedy struck shortly after completing the second run, when a mechanical failure in the front wheel caused the car to lose control and burst into flames. Combs suffered blunt-force trauma to the head and died at the scene. Her record of 522.783 mph was officially recognized by Guinness World Records in 2020 after a thorough investigation and analysis of the data.
While Jessi's death was tragic, she inspired many people with her courage and determination. She once said, "I really do feel like I have a little bit of a superpower when I get in a car and I get to go fast." The North American Eagle project was abandoned after Combs' death.Jessi Combs and the Speed Challenger were a remarkable duo that pushed the limits of speed and engineering. They shared a common passion for racing and breaking records, and they worked together to achieve their goals. She inspired many people with her achievements, and will always be remembered as the fastest woman on four wheels and the car that made it possible.
