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Reuters
Jessi Combs appeared in a number of television shows
US race car driver and television personality Jessi Combs has been killed in a crash while attempting to set a new land speed record.
Combs’ family confirmed that she had died in a crash in a jet-powered car in south-east Oregon, but further details were not immediately released.
In a statement, the family said they remembered her “bright smile [and] positivity”.
Combs, 39, had been dubbed the “fastest woman on four wheels”.
She earned the title in 2013 when she reached 398 miles per hour (641km/h). Combs was trying to best that speed and the absolute women’s land speed record of 512 miles per hour (824km/h) – set by Kitty O’Neil in 1976 – when she crashed.
“Jessi’s most notable dream was to become the fastest woman on Earth, a dream she had been chasing since 2012… and she left this Earth driving faster than any other woman in history,” her family said.
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Her teammate Terry Madden also paid tribute to her on social media.
“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,” he said in an Instagram post on Wednesday.
Combs had appeared on a number of television shows, including Overhaulin’, All Girls Garage and Mythbusters.
She was a driver with the North American Eagle Supersonic Speed Challenger team and had been chronicling her attempt to set a new land-speed record in the days before her death.
“It may seem a little crazy to walk directly into the line of fire… those who are willing, are those who achieve great things. People say I’m crazy. I say thank you,” she wrote on Instagram this week.