Remembering the day Jessi Combs set her first land speed record

We at Autoblog have been deeply saddened by the sudden loss of former colleague Jessi Combs, who died in a land speed racing crash earlier this week. But we’re able to take a bit of solace in the fact she was doing something that she loved. And we want to focus on that by revisiting the first time she set a land speed record in the above episode of “The List.”

Jessi joined up with the North American Eagle Supersonic Speed Challenger team way back in 2013 to set a women’s land speed record. This was the team she would continue to race with over the years in pursuit of ever faster records. In this first session, the goal was to beat at least one of a couple speed records listed by different sanctioning bodies. In this case, the prime target was an FIA record of just a little over 300 mph.

The episode goes through some of the prepwork, and it highlights how dangerous this type of motorsport can be. But everything went well, and Jessi smashed the FIA record, hitting 398 mph. (In later attempts, she hit a non-official 483 mph.)

Godspeed, Jessi.