Professional racer and TV personality Jessi Combs died at the age of 39 while attempting to beat her own land-speed record in a jet car, her racing team says.
The Harney County Sheriff’s Office says a jet-powered vehicle was involved in a fatal crash Tuesday afternoon in the Alvord Desert in southeast Oregon, local station KTVZ reports. The sheriff’s office did not release the name of the victim.
Jessi Combs’ team member Terry Madden announced her death in an Instagram video post on Wednesday. The video showed dozens of photos and clips of Madden with Combs on vacation and preparing for races.
“We lost her yesterday in a horrific accident,” Madden wrote in the Instagram post. “I was the first one there, and trust me we did everything humanly possible to save her!”
He added that she was filming a documentary at the time.
“Please donate to nothing,” he wrote. “We are finishing the documentary as she wished and the world will know the truth and her foundation will use those funds to do amazing things in this world and make her legacy live on properly. ”
Her Landspeed team’s website paid tribute to her death with a memorial landing page on Wednesday.
“Jessi Combs,” the message read. “July 27, 1980 – August 27, 2019.”
Combs became known as the “fastest woman on four wheels” in 2013, after hitting a top speed of 597 kilometres per hour in a jet-propelled car in the Alvord Desert. She set the record in the North American Eagle Supersonic Speed Challenger, a car equipped with a 52,000- horsepower engine.
Combs was attempting to break her own record with the same vehicle on Tuesday, according to a statement her family provided to Jalopnik, an automotive news site.
“Jessi was known for her bright smile, positivity and tenacious pursuit of the fulfillment of her dreams,” her family said in the statement. “Surrounded by her family and friends at the time of her passing, Jessi lived fearlessly and her legacy lives on in the countless lives she touched.”
Combs’ death has shocked the automotive racing world, where she was well-known as a racer, builder, fabricator and TV personality. Combs has appeared in several television series including MythBusters, Xtreme 4×4 and All Girls Garage.
“I am so sad, Jessi Combs has been killed in a car crash,” former MythBusters co-host Adam Savage tweeted on Wednesday. “She was a brilliant and top-notch builder, engineer, driver, fabricator and science communicator, and strove every day to encourage others by her prodigious example. She was also a colleague, and we are lesser for her absence.”
One of Combs’ last social media posts shows the back of her jet car in the Alvord Desert on Aug. 24.
“It may seem a little crazy to walk directly into the line of fire,” she wrote. “Those who are willing, are those who achieve great things.
“People say I’m crazy. I say thank you.”
Combs told the Associated Press last year that she was eager to race again in Oregon.
“We could probably set a record still at Alvord Desert but there is absolutely no room for error,” Combs told AP in January 2018.
“We are trying to bring racing and land speed racing back to the public eye,” she said at the time. “If we could somehow make it sexy again that would be amazing.”
NOTE: This story has been corrected to reflect that Combs was 39, not 36.