Race Car Driver and 'Mythbusters' Star Jessi Combs Posthumously Awarded World Speed Record After Fatal Crash

Race car driver Jessi Combs has just been named the fastest woman in the world. Combs, who also starred in Mythbusters, was posthumously awarded the fastest land speed record this week when Guinness World Records posted the speed. She died in an accident last year in the Alvord Desert in Oregon while trying to break her record. She was 39 years old.

Combs recorded a speed of 522.783 mph in a jet-powered car. Terry Madden, Combs' long-time partner, was made aware of the news from a reporter from the London Times and said he didn't know how to feel. Madden is happy for Combs but is still emotional about her death, especially when he looks at the car.

"I'm so proud of her," he wrote in an Instagram post. She woke up that morning to an alarm saying, "let's make history," and we had an absolutely amazing day." Madden went on to write about how she had concerns about her safety. He told her, "I would support her no matter what she decided to do." Combs ultimately decided to go through with it, and Madden wrote Combs was going to "walk away from it for good and let her back up driver go for the overall world record instead of her."

"It has torn me apart that all I had to do is say let's go and we would have left before that run, she asked my opinion and I told her to go for it if it was what she wanted," Madden added. He went on to reveal how the accident happened. A wheel assembly failed and went into the electronics/mechanical bay behind her seat. Madden wrote that Combs did everything right and wanted to make it clear she did nothing wrong.

In November, the cause of the accident was revealed, which was a front-wheel failure. The cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head suffered in the crash. The car went up in flames after the crash, but medical experts say that Combs did not experience that. Combs did not just race vehicles like a jet-power car, but she also built vehicles such as prolonged rides and motorcycles. Her skills led to her making TV appearances, starring in Xtreme 4x4, Overhaulin' and All Girls Garage along with Mythbusters.