Jessi Combs: her passion for speed rewrote the record books | Gabriel Baumgaertner
September 2, 2019Friends and colleagues have paid glowing tribute to Jessi Combs, who was killed in a crash on Tuesday while attempting to break womens land-speed record
Toby Brusseau wasnt alarmed when his Facebook message to his dear high school friend Jessi Combs went unanswered. Desert connectivity is always spotty, and she was navigating the North American Eagle, a car designed to eventually go 800mph. Just one week earlier,the two dined on Thai food and reluctantly tried chicken feet in their hometown of Rapid City, South Dakota; Toby discussed the completion of his new documentary film while Jessi detailed her upcoming trip to break a new land speed record in Oregon.
On 27 August, he found out that Combss life ended in the same desert where she once made history.
In 2013, Combs set the official 2013 land speed record when she hit 398mph atthe Alvord Desert in south-east Oregon. On Tuesday afternoon, the 39-year-old racer was killed trying to break the 512mph womens land-speed record set in 1976 by Kitty ONeil, who died last November.
To the world, Combs was either the Fastest Woman on Four Wheels, a guest of the hit TV show Mythbusters or the former host of Xtreme 4×4, Overhaulin and All Girls Garage. To WyoTech campus director Caleb Perriton, she was a devoted alum and role model for his three daughters. To Valerie Thompson, the American Queen of Speed and first woman to exceed 300mph on a motorcycle, Combs was the one woman whose passion for speed meant rewriting the record books.
A native of Rapid City, Combs was the daughter enamoured by the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally just 28 miles from home and who would gleefully await the chance to smash a four-wheeler over boulders and ram through the narrowest crevices of the Black Hills. Combs spoke reverently of her liberated, rural upbringing that could feature rock climbing one day, cliff jumping on another and four-wheel racing on the weekends.
South Dakota was a place where you could take risks, Combs said in a 2014 interview with MidCo Sports Network. You could break barriers and get away with it.
To high school classmate Greta Holzwarth, she was the fellow Stevens High School cheerleader with the most spirit in uniform and that big, shitty grin of the first person to try something that her teammates wouldnt. Im guessing cheerleader isnt what people expect when discussing the fastest woman on four wheels, Holzwarth says.
When Combs graduated from Stevens High, she immersed herself in a world of mechanics and engineering at WyoTech, a Laramie, Wyoming-based institute for careers in the automotive and diesel industry.
Combs was the unlikely celebrity from WyoTech, though fame never kept her from returning to a campus of blue-collar kids pursuing blue-collar vocations. Shed remind incoming freshmen that she arrived in Laramie hundreds of miles from home. Was anybody in the audience afraid of denials from the financial aid office? A few years ago, Jessi Combs was too. Did any women in the audience feel scared to pursue the male-dominated world of metal fabricating? It wasnt long ago that the Fastest Woman on Four Wheels did too.
The last time she was on campus, there were a handful of female students seeking her advice, Perriton says. Theyd mention anecdotally that that was why she came to the school. She set the trend for women in a male-dominated industry. And that isnt really debatable. She proved personal ambition, work ethic and so forth can guide anybody and she broke down a lot of barriers.
After graduating at the top of her class, she was hired by the marketing department to build a car for showcase at a major trade show. Before long, shed make the seamless transition into television while conquering the racing circuit.
Combs was showcased as a student during a Season One episode of the TLC show Overhaulin, a show shed eventually co-host after her involvement with Xtreme 4×4, All Girls Garage and the wildly popular Discovery channel show Mythbusters. Her growing celebrity didnt interrupt her active participation on the racing circuit, where she drove everything from monster trucks to rally cars to hot rods. If somebody needed a stunt driver, an off-roader or a drifter, Combs could do it. If the vehicle had a mechanical problem, she was equipped to fix it.
If you need to know anything about Jessi, it was that she was the real deal, says Jim Ryan, the sales and marketing director of the off-road racing body Score International. She knew everything from the inside out and make repairs in the field. She wasnt somebody simply trying to achieve something. Whatever she was involved in, she respected.
Whether it was racing the notoriously grueling Baja 100 Score Internationals signature race in Baja, California, that spans over 800 miles or trying to break land speed records, Combss zest for new challenges throughout racing garnered universal respect from her peers.
I want to be in the Guinness Book of World Records, Combs said in her 2014 interview with MidCo. And I dont have the patience to grow the longest fingernails in the world. Why not be the fastest woman on four wheels? It makes complete sense.
In that interview, Combs admitted that she thought shed return to Rapid City to build motorcycles for a living after college. Instead, she became the woman who could build a car or motorcycle from the ground up and race it to victory. To a generation of women aspiring to compete in motorsports or pursue metal fabrication and auto detailing, Combs was an icon. Her influence even inspired Valerie Thompson, a seven-time motorcycle land-speed record holder. The two led Combss beloved Sturgis rally and formed a kinship as two women atop their respective fields. When Thompson crashed in March 2018 after reaching 363mph, Combs visited to ask how she was recovering physically and emotionally.
She could see when I was trying to be a big girl and when I wasnt being authentic, Thompson says. I realised that not many women ever get to experience what we do. We live life fearlessly. Her legacy will live on and it will live through mostly people shes never met. She was a proven example of what women can do.
Thompson was outfitted for the North American Eagle, the car Combs was navigating at the time of her death. As the investigation continues to reveal what caused Combss crash, her family, boyfriend and racing team are struggling to convey what theyve lost in the tragedys aftermath. Thompson is due to attend Speed Week at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah in September, but admits to furiously refreshing her computer to learn more details about the accident.
When I know what happened, I can let my heart rest, Thomspon says. I havent recovered from my own accident and I was a former pilot for this car. I started that car and turned on the afterburners even if I didnt race it.
While the motor sports community lost an icon, Caleb Perriton and Toby Brusseau lost a friend. Perriton relishes the memory of a class trip to Wyomings Medicine-Bow National Forest, a casual trip that Combs turned into a race. The photograph of Combs and his eldest daughter is now one of his prized possessions. Finding the right speaker to motivate incoming freshman will be harder than it was when Jessi was around.
Brusseau digs for the perfect story to encapsulate Combss personality, but only finds the casual conversations of their last dinner together. It was a simple gathering of friends; conversations were dominated by life since their youth, the goings on of old classmates and Jessis excitement about repurposing an old building to open a business in California. When he feels like hes talked too much to promote his documentary, hell think of the girl in the welding mask who valued finishing a job before talking about it.
Ultimately, hell take solace in that she died following her passion while lamenting a life that was just beginning.
When I last saw her, I didnt see a celebrity. All I saw across was a friend sharing green curry, bullshitting about the past and life in general, he says. We just gave each other a hug, said goodbye and waited for the next time we can catch up. Youre never prepared for when it ends.
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