Original subtitles

Comm, video check, please.

Copy. Loud and clear.

Attention down on track.

Gimme a wind check down there.

About mile 4 here, we have a consistent wind,

probably about 10 miles an hour or so.

We still got some good gusts down here

and they're 8, 9.

So, this would be my first run out this whole week.

It's time to get suited up, Jessi.

Alright! I'm on my way.

If it's feeling good, yeah, I'll push it,

but I'm not gonna go for 550 to 600 on this run.

Maybe still 400.

Which is still so crazy to think about.

Data to comm.

Do we have the rock pickers clearing the course?

Rock crew is at the 7.5, working to the 8,

and I got crew coming back.

Range 3 to comm.

We're in position at mile marker 3.

Driver Jessi has entered the cockpit.

And let's go ahead and bring the air on now.

Information prestart checklist is in progress.

Information. The canopy is down and locked.

Hey, this is mile zero.

Are we ready down 4?

Mile 4 clear.

Mile 5 clear.

Mile 6 clear.

Mile 7 clear.

Is this 37?

Alright, Take 37. Marker.

It's a loaded question.

For the most part, I'm just a normal girl, you know?

But I live a life that's risky.

I don't live a normal everyday.

I had a desk job once.

It lasted six months

because I don't know how to be something I'm not.

And, when it comes to cars, when it comes to driving,

I think it's what I was born for.

Hey, guys. Sorry I haven't posted in a while.

It's been super crazy-busy.

I forgot what I was going to say.

Hey, guys. Sorry I haven't posted in a while.

It's been super crazy-busy, lots going on.

I am going to be driving all 1,134.4 miles of the Baja 1000.

Only a couple other women have ever attempted this before,

so I'm pretty special.

I'm special.

Jesus.

It's now 12:44 in the morning.

You'd think I would have this done.

You would think, after 15 years of being on television,

that I would have this shit figured out by now.

Jessi is someone that has two sides to her.

One side is what I think the general public sees,

which is a very easygoing, carefree person.

The other side to that is someone

who sees something they want

and they do everything they can to make that happen.

If I'm tired now,

what does this mean for the 1000?

But to actually be around and work with someone like that,

it's exhausting.

Jessi and I hosted a show together.

It was called...

And this was everything from simple stuff

to the most outrageous things.

Gently, left, left, left, left, left!

You could tell like, when she was super comfortable,

she was very confident.

But she's a person who puts on a public persona,

so, when she's not super comfortable,

she's just as scared and just as nervous as I was.

Feel my pulse.

Yeah.

And she lives in a specific world

which is male-dominated

and she dealt with a lot of shit from that side.

I think, finally, after all these years,

the men are starting to believe that,

"Hey, you know, she actually

knows what she's talking about."

But I am in a man's world. I work around men every day.

All my friends are men because I am very passionate

about driving and racing and building

and that's what I am.

So, as far as being a woman in a man's world,

it doesn't really bother me, as long as they allow me

to be a woman in it.

5, 4...

...3, 2, 1.

Go, go, go.

Fuck yeah. We're having fun, motherfuckers. Aah!

With Ultra4 Racing, I'm still the only female

to podium finish.

So I've won.

Like I've beat hundreds of dudes,

but I went down to the Baja 1000 seven times

before I actually got the opportunity to race.

And so I have to push harder.

I have to prove more.

I have to do things bigger, better.

You're amazing!

You're so damn good!

And it's like I knew I could do it

and that's what keeps me going,

is knowing that I have what it takes to win.

Jessi Combs, everybody.

- Yeah! - Alright!

Those are some of the most epic moments of my life.

The cards that have been dealt to me

are pretty fricking awesome.

But it's like I come home and it's kind of like

a standstill.

That's my selfish part of me,

because I need to fill that void.

And it doesn't matter how many tools you get out

and how many things you want to start creating

and you try and fill that void,

but you're not gonna be able to do that again

until the next adventure.

Jessi!

Hi!

Are you crying?

Why?!

Aww, sweetie. - Thank you.

I love you.

Mom doesn't know I'm here yet.

- Oh, you're welcome. - Hi, Mom.

Shit!

Yeah, again. - Oh, my God!

Oh, my God.

Oh, you're crazy.

When she comes home, it's precious when that happens

because she's so busy.

You know, from day one, Jessi has been a goal setter,

from even as a little girl, never fearful of anything,

with a few tickets in her pocket.

Damn it!

How does this always happen to me?

I don't know.

A few accidents in her pocket

and maybe Mom would never notice.

That's what she said one day

and I thought that was hysterical.

There's cat scratches on the top of my car

as she went under a barbed-wire fence.

"Oh, Mom won't notice."

Yes! I made it!

There's only one speed...

not fast enough.

But I remember the day that she said to me that,

"I need to show you this video."

And she goes, "I need you to pay attention to this

because I'm going to drive that car."

And Mom starts getting this hyperventilation going on.

And it was like, "Oh, my gosh!

This is really happening."

Fighter planes have long been known

for their speed in the air,

but this one may soon be known for its speed on the ground.

A group of men in Pierce County are converting

an old F-104 fighter plane into what they hope will be

the world's fastest car.

Oh, I think it's a thrill.

It'd be like being the guy picked

to be the first to summit Mount Everest.

Ed Shadle is the car's driver,

the man who'll be behind the wheel

of the North American Eagle, as it's called,

going 800 to 900 miles per hour.

At my age, there are a lot of guys

who are already retired and they're done.

They're laying on the couch, watching television

for the rest of their life and waiting to die.

That isn't the way I feel about life.

My name is Ed Shadle, principal owner and driver

of the North American Eagle.

The initial goal for this project

really started back in the '90s,

when, you know, Andy Green went out and set that record in '97.

The British team has established

a supersonic land speed record

in the Nevada desert.

The RAF pilot Andy Green,

driving the thrust supersonic car,

broke the sound barrier on Monday.

Andy Green and ThrustSSC have just set

the first ever supersonic land speed record.

It's human nature to push back the bounds of what is possible,

what has been achieved, in the same way

that people want to, for the first time ever,

to climb Everest, to go supersonic in the air,

to walk on the moon.

Today, for the first time ever,

we created a car and made it supersonic,

something that humankind has never done before.

The British came along and went supersonic, okay?

That's a whole different chapter in the physics books.

When the car is driven subsonically,

it compresses the air in front of it.

At the speed of sound, the air parts suddenly,

causing a shock wave and a sonic boom.

- Get going! - Go, go!

Go! Go, go!

Congratulations for Andy Green,

whose average speed over a measured mile

was clocked at 763 miles an hour.

At the time we thought, "Man,

anybody that'd try to break that is crazy."

And I don't know if Ed came up with it,

but we both agreed that, if we could find

a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter,

maybe we could convert it into a land speed car.

As crazy as that sounds, okay?

The beauty of the aircraft is that you got a wind chill

that's good at Mach 2.8.

It has a perfect inlet geometry.

The aircraft itself is only

about this much in diameter bigger than the engine,

so you couldn't design anything smaller.

And what allow the F-104 to go supersonic was

a turbo jet engine that had an afterburner producing

over 18,000 pounds of thrust.

So, how were a couple of guys from Seattle going

to improve on that?

Well, it took me about a year to find an F-104,

in an aircraft junkyard back in Maine.

It was a mess! It just looked nasty!

And I can't believe we paid 25 grand for this thing.

But Ed started taking the paint off of the vehicle.

The numbers started to start coming through that last layer

and it said FG, for fighter group,

and then 763.

The world land speed record is 763 miles an hour.

Now, we think there's divine intervention involved.

The next thing you know, you've gathered other people

on your team that are like you,

you know, the same mission in mind.

History in the making.

- Absolutely. - Hear, hear.

800 miles an hour, people.

Yes, sir.

It'd be nice, someday, if somebody gave us some money

to help us. That'd be great.

But, so far, you know, we're making it, you know,

one nickel at a time.

One thing I want to point out is this is a hobby.

It has turned into a million-dollar hobby.

It's something that we do after work and on weekends.

From the beginning,

we were looking for a female driver

and we were looking for a female driver

for a couple different reasons.

We were looking for somebody that could

bring attention to the project.

There was no doubt about that.

We were looking for somebody that could help us.

I remember the first time we met Jessi.

She had a whole new audience, people that were following her

and her King of Hammers and her off-road and Baja stuff,

plus her TV stuff that she was doing.

Hello, everybody, and welcome to "All Girls Garage."

You could tell that she was in total command...

...and she had stage presence.

And Ed and I are about 40 feet outside the restaurant.

We turn to each other and say, "We got to get her."

When I was introduced to Jessi, I says, you know,

"We'd like to make you the number one candidate,

but you have to pass some tests."

And so there are some things we had her do

which probably were a little unusual.

I sent her up with a friend in an open cockpit biplane

and did an hour's worth of aerobatics

to see if he could make her throw up

and she didn't.

She, in fact, had a lot of fun.

Took her to the Bonneville Salt Flats,

put her in a highboy roadster, had her run out there.

She did like 178 miles an hour.

And it was like, "No big deal."

She'd make someone a really good fighter pilot.

When Jessi came up to do the engine test that first time

and put it into full afterburner and it jerked up on the chain...

...she basically said, "Where do I sign?

Because I want to do this.

I want to be part of this."

The instructions we gave her right out of the box was

not to go into afterburner

and don't go over 100 miles an hour

and so she did that.

She did everything we asked her to do.

She got out of that car and she was mad at us

and she looked at me and she goes,

"My damn Jeep goes faster than that."

And I just said, "I get it."

And then she went out and pulled off

250 miles an hour.

Then she pulled off 280 miles an hour.

These are on back-to-back rounds

and she went and did this stuff.

Our short-term goals for this vehicle this week is,

one, get the record for Jessi Combs

on being the world's fastest woman on four wheels.

That record was set by Lee Breedlove in 1965.

She did a two-way average of 308 miles per hour

in a four-wheel jet car.

Second is the overall women's record.

It was set by Kitty O'Neil, at 512 miles an hour in 1976,

in a three-wheel rocket car.

That is the record now.

That's the new land speed record for women.

We're gonna go faster. She wants to go faster.

To get the record, you have to go

over a measured mile

and do the return run

over the same measured mile

and then average the two runs.

Then we have to gather all that data with witnesses,

present that to the authorities, and then they say,

"Yes, you did it."

- Yeah. - Yeah.

She's good to go, as long as the car's good to go.

I have to trust myself.

The moment I start doubting myself

is the moment I'm gonna fail,

the moment something's going to go wrong.

I have to trust myself.

I don't think I really have a choice.

We don't think about that.

But there's still that factor that lingers.

I mean, it's like, you know,

I'm young and I have a living will.

I don't think people my age think about those things.

Truly, the worst-case scenario is

the car wrecks.

We know the ultimatum there.

There's no surviving.

Once that car leaves,

then all of us have the freedom to chase down that lake bed.

And so, here we are, flying as fast as we can.

in our vehicles that usually govern out

at 100 or 110 miles an hour.

Of course, the whole time Nina and I are in there,

we're hoping, when we get to the other end of the lake bed,

that there's not a pile of red rubble there.

It felt amazing.

It was the coolest feeling I think I've ever had in my life.

Ooh!

I was gonna say.

- Don't tell us. - No?

Seriously, I knew it was.

What was the number?!

- Ah, that feels so good! - Ooh!

Well, what's the number?

- Yeah, baby! - Give it to 'em.

440.4.

Jessi Combs, known as the

fastest woman on four wheels. - The fastest woman

on four wheels. - We know she was driving

her jet-powered car

440 miles per hour.

I've beat a record, now I just have to turn it in

and there's still another record out there,

which is that 512, so this is just baby steps

to go on to the bigger, better things.

It was probably one of the best rides

I've ever had in my entire life

and I'm gonna keep going faster.

That's the best part about this.

This is so rad.

- Fastest woman in the world. - Oh, I love you.

She's a natural.

She knows that it's her calling.

Yes! Aaah!

She's always been pretty fearless

and we knew that pretty early on because, before she was one,

her uncle and I would throw her across the kitchen

and she would just laugh and giggle.

She just had the time of her life.

And, you know, most kids would've just freaked out,

but not Jessi.

She was always hiding, missing in action.

There were days I couldn't find her.

We lived in this mobile home and there was a box

sitting on the stairway like this,

and I had passed it three or four times.

She was curled up in that box, sound asleep.

There's kind of that little mischievous stuff behind her

of, "Yeah, I'm gonna have a little fun and do it my way

and this is gonna turn into a good story."

We both loved the outdoors.

There would be days when she and I

would just jump in a vehicle.

We'd drive out to the Black Hills

and just sit out while it was snowing.

I lived a pretty secluded life, you know?

We didn't have Internet.

We didn't have access to the outside world.

When I was a little girl, I never met

any really badass women

that were doing exceptional things

and I think that's why I started so late in life.

As much as we loved being here,

Jessi was like ready to...

she was... she was ready to run.

"I got to get out of here. I'm feeling stifled.

This is not where I belong."

Everything she did, she did full-on

and, when it was time for her to flee the nest,

she did it, and she did it big.

She was 19, I think,

met a guy in Sturgis,

went to Chicago to live with him.

Like she had met him at the rally.

Like, "Holy shit!

What are you doing?!"

She does spontaneous things.

That's just the way she is.

There is this desire for her to find the right guy.

I think we all had our ideas of what that would be, you know?

My dad was like, "He's going to be a cowboy," you know.

"It's got to be." You know, whatever.

I remember when she called me up and said, "Mom,

I know what I want to do."

And I said, "What's that?" And she goes,

"I want to build cars."

I said, "Right, right."

She gives me a call and tells me she's going to

go to trade school at WyoTech

and I'm thinking, "Why would she do that," you know?

I was not really for it.

It was more of a man's world, you know?

How do girls fit into men's worlds?

It doesn't usually turn out really well for women.

It wasn't even a year and a half later,

she graduated top of her class out of 2,300 men.

I'm a rule breaker.

I'm a risk taker.

I'm a "Say I can't, say I won't,

I'll prove you wrong" a kind of person.

I like getting things done.

I like seeing things be created.

Watch out, everybody.

We're all people that are, by nature, problem solvers

and I think fixing and inventing stuff that is so odd, unusual,

difficult, is probably the reason why we do this.

I built a soapbox derby racer when I was about 14.

Then in the '50s, you know, get into drag racing

and running around the streets, acting like a fool.

Then at the same time, I was, you know,

learning how to fly airplanes.

But when I went to the Bonneville Salt Flats

and I got involved with racing out there,

land speed racing has been my, you know, my main passion.

Someday, this is gonna be the future racer.

Yeah. Is this Grandpa's car?

That car.

- Right here. - This Grandpa's car?

It's Grandpa's car.

Hey, Ed. It's Jessi. How's it going?

Okay.

Really?

And, uh...

When you come out here right now, it's dry.

But if you were here in late December,

there'd be a foot of water over this whole thing.

The wind blows that water around,

smoothes out all these ruts.

All these ruts that are out here,

these all get smoothed out and this'll be

like a pool table when it's done.

Okay, so, what does that mean for our runs in September?

Well...

Okay, so, as of right now,

we are postponed for September, then?

Yeah.

South Dakota's one of those states.

There's not a lot out here, you know?

It's cold. It's bleak. It's flat.

Except for where I grew up, which is in the Black Hills.

But outside of the Black Hills, there's nothing.

There's nothing. It's lots of

long, straight, boring roads.

In half a mile, turn left onto 115th Street.

For 54 miles, continue on 115th Street.

Fifty-four miles

on the same street.

Maybe it has something to do

with the lifestyle that she lived

and there was a lot going on

and she just needed to get some peace and quiet.

It was just what most of the tenants

of the Valley Hilton Hotel

had come to L.A. to see...

a bit of Hollywood...

and, to top it all off,

none other than Wonder Woman herself.

Actually, it was not the TV show's star, Lynda Carter,

but the famous 32-year-old stunt woman Kitty O'Neil.

This is the Mattel toy.

Do you like it?

Kitty O'Neil has been totally deaf

since she was two years old,

but she hasn't let that slow her down.

The stunt community is pretty damn small.

Back then, it was. Now it's huge.

There was no women that I knew of at the time.

All of a sudden, we got this woman

that's a heck of an athlete, you know,

and she's deaf, on top of it,

and she's capable of doing all these incredible things.

Are there any stunts that you don't like to do?

You don't like motorcycles?

Uh-huh.

Too crazy.

A lot of people standing around here

were asking themselves, "Why does this pretty little lady

do this kind of stuff?"

Miss O'Neil says she has no intention

of stopping her dangerous lifestyle.

She hasn't yet decided which record she'll break next,

but, she says, she'll keep us posted.

Let's see if we can get it to go.

Oh! Oh, my gosh!

Now, this here's Kitty in a rocket car

out in the desert at El Mirage.

Boy, I was a lot thinner back then, too, I see.

One day I picked up the paper

and here I see about this young lady in a land speed car

that was approaching breaking the men's record

and, well, it just so happened

I got a car right in my shop here I'm building.

I'm building a car to go 1,000 miles an hour.

I'm gonna see if I can get ahold of them

and see if they'll team up with me.

She knew that right off the bat

that I was really gung ho about it.

And her and I, we hit it off right away.

We set 72 state and national and international speed records.

But, you know, when you're deaf, you live in your own world.

And Kitty was in her own little world.

And she trusted too many people.

She trusted the wrong people.

Who knows how far she could have gone.

Yeah. History would have been different.

Over the years, apparently, she's become an alcoholic,

and she gets in these bouts of rage when she's drunk

and she tears her house apart.

She can't go anywhere. She can't drive.

She got three DUIs in one week.

She's 66 years old. She's fallen apart.

Her liver is shot, her health is fading,

which is one of the reasons why I feel like

I need to come out here and I need to meet her because...

there's not one other woman out there

who could really understand what we're all about,

which I don't even know if I figured it out yet.

And maybe that's what I'm trying to figure out with her.

What is it that really drives us?

Here's her stuff.

I hear her.

Hello?

How are you? Hi.

You look lovely.

- Thank you. - Yeah.

My gosh, you're so tiny.

Look how small she is.

I thought I was little. You're little.

I thought I was little, but you're little.

Look at you.

That's when you crashed, right?

- Yeah. - Yeah.

You want to do it again?

You are crazy, aren't you?

Well, thank you for paving the path.

Now I'm just trying to be like you...

but faster.

What got you into being a stunt woman?

Was it... Was it because you're not afraid of anything?

So you don't get nervous?

No.

You don't think twice. You just...

Okay. "This is what I have to do, and I'm gonna do it."

Yeah.

One thing about Kitty is she really made a mark

with, you know, deaf people.

To this day,

if they find out that I was involved with Kitty O'Neil,

they come running right up to me.

You've had a lot of things that you've had to overcome.

You work harder?

Why did you stop?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Do you have any advice for me?

And I have your blessing to break your record?

Awesome.

Okay. Thank you.

I will.

Get in there, Kitty.

She likes looking really little.

It's very rare to find somebody that I can relate to.

Because there's this whole other part of us

that it's not about us, you know,

for her, it was... it was the deaf children,

you know, to show that there is no handicap

and they can do anything that they set their minds to.

And for me, it's girls and it's women to let them know

that they can go fast and get dirty and have fun

and be just as good as the boys, if not better,

and still at the end of the day, be a girl.

You know, when I broke my back, I had an opportunity to kind of

connect myself with the rest of the world

because I built a website and that was before social media

or anything really came around.

I freakishly had a piece of machinery fall on me.

It burst-fractured my L3.

My doctors call me a miracle case.

I should be in a wheelchair,

should be paralyzed from the waist down.

And it kind of just pushed me to try harder

and to try and be better

because I had a whole new perspective on life.

When I started hearing these people's stories

and the lives that I was changing, it was amazing.

I started realizing that the things that I was doing

was making an impact on people's life and making a difference.

Kitty and I operate on a very similar level

because she did it. She lived it.

And she did it for a lot for the same reasons.

But she was this thriving super stunt person

that everybody knew back in the day

to nobody knows where she is.

Nobody knows what she's doing.

It makes you wonder what actually broke down in her.

There's a part of me that wants to make sure

that one of my heroes is gonna be okay

because maybe that will give me a sense

that I'm gonna be okay.

The conditions out here at Alvord this year

are just really very, very nice, minimal wind.

In some cases, it just gets dead calm

and the course is just so smooth for the first 8 miles.

It's just beautiful.

The number-one mission for this week of runs

is to get Jessi that record that Kitty O'Neil holds.

We would like to put down at least one really good,

strong run and see if we can get it over 600.

With only 8 miles, it's kind of questionable

whether we can actually do that.

But you don't know till you try.

I kind of like the fact that Ed is the guinea pig

because, one, he knows the car.

He's been building this car for 15 years,

which makes me feel way more comfortable to be in the car

knowing that he can do it, I can do it, for sure.

Coming out your way. It's all you, baby.

Ed gets in a car, makes a test run.

Right off the bat, it goes to the left,

can't go to the right.

The steering was... was junk.

Remember, we worked on this car for 50 weeks a year

and then we test it for two weeks a year.

We can't just go out every week, month or so

and check the car out.

Ready?

There was no let-down on these guys

trying to get this thing ready to go.

They're out here, the wind's blowing, the sand's blowing.

I mean, everybody could have went and gotten in a trailer

and hid out and nobody did.

I'm proud of them.

You know, as a crew chief,

I can't be anything but proud of them.

Worried this time?

Yeah, my mom seems a little bit more comfortable

this go-around.

Probably because I haven't gotten in the car yet.

That's the prettiest guacamole I've ever seen, Mom.

- Who is that girl? - What girl?

Who's that girl?

What is this mess going on here? You need to fix this.

Clean up.

I want this all cleaned up by the end of the day.

See ya.

Whoo! It's hot.

My mom's job is never done. Poor woman.

She sees me do stuff like this,

and I swear her heart is beating out of her chest.

- Sorry. - I'm sorry for you guys.

It's depressing.

You know, you finally reach a point

where you don't have the technological wherewithal

to solve the problems in the field.

So it's time to go back home and lick our wounds

and then solve the problem.

No, I'm praying.

I touch the car, I pray.

It just sucks that we have to wait another year

or however long for it to happen.

It's really difficult, you know, how long

am I gonna have to put my life on hold?

Like, I can't have a family

and try and break a world land speed record.

That, all of a sudden, makes things very real.

There's a really big period of time

where Jessi and I just lost touch

because I was raising a family and she was just out living.

But I remember a time where she just started communicating,

"I'd really like somebody to come home to

that I can consistently count on."

And "Am I ever gonna be a mom? Am I... ".

You know, like, "How can I make this work

and still keep following this dream of mine that is running

and if I don't go with it, I'm gonna miss that boat."

It's not as glamorous as it seems.

It's not.

I am pulled in a lot of different directions

between the television, between the race teams,

between the sponsors, between the representation,

between everything that I'm doing.

And where is there time for other people?

Where is there time for, like, a real life?

Hey, guys. I know I haven't been posting

on social media a lot lately.

I'm sorry. It's just been ridiculously busy.

We had Babes Ride Out last weekend,

then I went to go test the trophy truck.

I've got SEMA next week.

It's not like I get to come home to, like, a dog.

I would kill my dog. I just got a fish and I'm like...

I joke about how this fish is gonna die

within weeks, literally weeks,

because who's gonna take care of it when I'm gone?

Who? Like who... My plants.

It's so hard for me to keep plants alive.

You know what I named my fish?

Puppy.

So I do have a puppy.

You're gonna have to choose, right?

It's... it's just impossible to balance everything.

If you're going to live a life where you are chasing adventures

and you get to do all these wonderful things

that keep you away from home most of the year,

you're gonna have to sacrifice

having a solid relationship and a family.

Everybody, we're starting the start car.

Okay. Start sequence has begun.

My information... we have generator working.

Okay. Information... the canopy is down and locked.

Whoo.

Holy fuck.

Oh, my God.

Yeah, I saw that.

Both parachutes failed.

That's why I didn't fucking stop.

Okay.

Even when I saw the bushes coming, I was okay.

I promise.

Could you hear me?

How did you know? Why were you freaking out?

Okay. Okay.

That was fucking scary.

I fully believe that I experienced a miracle.

Right before the bushes,

I had to have still been going 100 miles an hour.

It literally seemed like the hand of God just came out,

put his hand on my windshield, and took me from 90 to nothing

in the most graceful way possible.

You know, there was a small fraction in there like,

"Ahh, this might be my last day."

Like, I... That was the first time

I think I've ever literally thought that thought,

like "This might be my last day."

I... I'm not afraid of dying, but I'm not ready to die.

This is something that I really want to die for.

You know?

Is this something I want to die for?

That was terrifying. It was just...

And to hear that she was scared, she doesn't get scared.

So it was like... So I think

that's what made it scarier for me

because it's like, "Okay, if Jessi is scared

from what just happened today,

that means it can get really, really bad."

There was a major shift that we could all see

and we could all feel.

Something would have to change in the career life

in order to make family as profound

and beneficial as she wanted.

I don't think depression is the right word,

but she just... She was lonely.

And it was... It was a space that not even us as family

could have filled for her.

Hey, everybody. I just wanted to miss you a merry Christmas.

I know this isn't always the easiest time of year for people.

I know it's really difficult for me,

but at least it snowed here.

Christmas was always the hardest time of year for her

because that's when her family split.

And so she actually would go away on her own.

The divorce wasn't so bad

as it was just how it all kind of came about.

It all happened at Christmas.

And so Christmas was always bad for her. Always.

And she was 12 when that all happened.

Yeah, I guess.

I mean, you know, I'd go out and mow the lawn

and who would be out there traipsing along beside me?

Jess. You know?

She liked hanging out with him, and he absolutely adored her.

But because of the divorce

and because of moving so far away from her dad,

there weren't nearly as many family moments after that.

Uh, just some of the poor decisions that were made

along the way, I guess.

Some of the stuff. Yeah.

So...

You know, I think you kind of have this Disney-movie idea

of what true love is supposed to be like

and how it's your prince forever

and it's always gonna be perfect and it's not.

So she's seeking out something that's probably unrealistic.

I don't understand why men can go out

and live these wild and free lives

but still be able to attract partners.

Whereas I seem to get these assholes

or these people who don't fully get it.

It's like this never-ending cycle of being

in really bad relationships or being completely alone.

There's an old saying...

Behind every great man, there's a woman.

Well, today, the opposite is also true.

And for Kitty O'Neil,

the man behind the scene is her husband,

Duffy Hambleton.

His confidence and support

has helped Kitty win many unusual accomplishments.

The guy that she supposedly was married to,

Duffy Hambleton... They were not married.

Their relationship was not very good.

I seen Duffy slap her around.

That was out there.

There was a lot of screaming in the household.

That's one of the reasons I moved out of that place.

Duffy was a schemer. Duffy was a smart guy.

He was a smart criminal.

She told me that he had

$1,000,000 life-insurance policy on her.

He was out there to take her money away from her

and then get rid of her at the end.

He was a bad guy.

One day we went out to El Mirage, California.

We had a rocket-powered Corvette,

and we were gonna have her set a record.

But there was something going on that I didn't know about.

Whoa! She's flying!

She's going too fast to stop!

End over end.

Wreckage is strewn everywhere.

I couldn't believe that she crashed.

I, uh...

I didn't understand what the h... what happened.

I couldn't believe that, you know,

there's not a scratch on her.

I'm okay.

Kitty is alright!

Yeah.

It was fine.

I'm okay.

Kitty disappeared after that car crashed.

And at that point,

I knew that Duffy had something to do with it.

I mean, she feared for her life.

And even after he passed away, she was still scared of him.

This is, like, this mind-boggling thing

because she seems that she's very capable,

very strong, can handle anything.

She's tough. Nothing seems to phase her.

And yet she lives up in this environment

that's...

Like, it's empty and it's lonely.

And the last thing that I want is to end up like that.

Jessi is this enormous energy, right?

And super independent.

That only got stronger and stronger the older she got.

More independent, more adventurous,

more all of those things,

which made it even harder for a guy to be like,

"I don't know if I can handle this package."

Right?

But there is power in that.

If you can figure out how to culminate that strength,

it is something that will take you far.

People will trust you.

People will know they can rely on you.

People will turn to you.

There's just so much power in being yourself.

Yeeeeeaaaahh!

Whoo-hoo!

First female Grand Marshal in Sturgis...

her backyard, her hometown.

- My home. - It is her home.

I am the Grand Marshal of the 77th Sturgis rally.

First female in all of its history.

For me, watching Jessi become the Grand Marshal for Sturgis,

shatter that ceiling, was everything.

It was everything.

You know, it's a male-dominated thing.

You know, it's all of these men on motorcycles.

And it didn't even occur to her that she was a woman.

She just jumped in and thought, "You know what? I can do this.

I'm gonna... I'm just going to shoot in that direction."

I tried to take that whole female factor out of it.

Fastest female on four wheels.

While I'm also in the top 10 fastest people on the planet.

But at what point are we gonna not have

to make that determination of, like, male, female?

As soon as I grab that throttle,

it doesn't know if I'm a male or a female.

It's gonna react the same exact way.

I just drive, and I drive as fast as I can.

There's more coffee in this coffee pot.

Alright.

We were kind of neighbors.

And I used to ride my horse to see him.

We were only 16 and 17, too, when we started going together.

He always wanted to be a pilot in the Air Force

and then they put him into crypto, into machines,

and he was really good at that, too.

He ended up with IBM Corporation when he got out of the service,

and he worked there for 30 years.

When did he know he was sick or when did I know he was sick?

Both.

About three years before he really did get sick.

I knew it because he was slowing down.

Cancer is a very ugly disease.

And it took 13 months for him to really say, "I'm done."

Ed and Elaine talked.

Basically what was gonna happen

is that they would remove the medication

that controls his blood pressure

and simply his blood pressure would drop.

He would go to sleep and then pass.

So I hold his hand and tell him it's okay to...

It's okay to go, Ed.

It's okay to go.

Hey, first of all, I want to thank everybody for coming here.

Okay?

We had some really extraordinary circumstances

in the last, you know, the last month,

but it's actually been going on about a year.

Two days ago, on Friday, Ed Shadle, our leader,

passed away from a long illness of cancer.

One week before Ed passed, Jessi flew up

and spent the whole day with Ed on a Thursday

and Ed basically handed over the keys to Jessi and said,

"Okay, you're our driver, you got to go do it."

And so I think that's when the restraints

were taken off of Jessi.

And she knows she could go out and go for the record.

Ed made it really clear there

that, "Jessi, you're now the number-one driver.

We're going to support you

and make you go as fast as you want to go."

And then we got Eric there as a backup.

You know, if for some reason, Jessi decides to get married...

...have children...

Les, you want to say anything?

I just want to say...

- Here. Stand up here. - I'm not getting up there.

- Alright. - On the soapbox.

I called Cam on Friday

and asked him if he'd bring Ed's hat.

So...

it's gonna be in the car all week.

That's his favorite dirty 200 hat, you know?

But Jessi's gonna take it with her on all the runs.

So... - Yep.

Ed's not here physically,

but we know he's here spiritually.

You know, this is his baby and it's his project.

And he put his whole life into it.

But now it's a lot of it is just resting on my shoulders.

That's heavy because if there's one thing that I can do for Ed

is really just be able to live out this legend.

Okay. Alright. Enough crying.

Let's break some records. - Let's do this.

Steve. N7STT. I am at 2.

Proceed.

Lord God, thank you.

Father, thank you for your hand

and your protection as we go forward.

Trust only in you, Lord,

as we reach the limits of our capability.

Starting engines.

Eagle 2, starting engines.

Copy that.

I felt great. Felt so good.

All of it felt good.

And that was slow. It was.

It was really, really slow.

Like I said, your guys' steering now is so good.

It's really, really good.

All my ghosts, all my demons,

all the stuff that happened from the last run

completely gone.

It's the best feeling in the entire world.

I was riding in the limo back,

listening on the radio conversations,

and somebody said something about the hydraulic door

is gone.

Well, at that point, we're going, "Uh-oh.

That's right forward to the inlet."

There's a good possibility

it might have gone down the inlet and into the engine.

The aluminum parts, the engine can usually ingest that stuff

and not get too much damage in there.

If there's a steel part,

the engine is pretty much junk at that point.

And that's why we're out there sweeping the desert,

is to make sure that we don't get rocks

or anything going into those blades,

because if it fractures one of those, we're done.

So right now, we're... we're thinking

that we're done for this trip.

Terry?

Yeah?

Yeah.

Okay. That's okay.

We're not gonna talk about that. It's nobody's fault.

I shut that door like I did a million times,

and it was loose and locked and loose...

I don't know what happened. I apologize.

I'm not blaming anybody. You know?

The weight of the world falls on all of our shoulders.

So hopefully we can lift it up off of you.

Because to me, that run was fucking amazing, Keith.

- Yeah. - It was really, really good.

- Yeah. - It restored my faith in myself.

- Yeah. - It restored faith in the team.

Like, everything was working.

Steering was working, everything worked.

I 100% forgive you. I don't think it's your fault.

At least the steering worked.

Come here. Come here. Come here.

I love you, Keith.

I love you, too.

- I'm not mad. Okay? - Okay.

Okay, let us take some burden off.

I pulled out the top vectors for "X," "Y" and "Z"

and added them together.

And it's gonna be left or right of that number right there.

Really? Really?

You're kidding me.

- That's the top speed. - And that's my shakedown run.

If you had gotten on it, like, at the quarter mile

instead of after the one mile... - Yeah.

...you would have been way over 500.

Ahh.

I always love your information.

I always love giving it to you.

- Yes. - Wonder why.

3, 2, 1. Ignition.

Kitty was supposed to just break the woman's record,

which was 300 miles an hour,

and then all of a sudden, she's gone over 500.

- That is the record now. - The official record.

New land speed record for women.

She's doing great.

We're gonna go faster if she wants to go faster.

- Yeah, I want to go faster. - You want to go faster.

Very good.

And then the story I heard

is that they wanted Hal Needham to set the overall record,

and they yanked her out of the car.

It just seems to me that they could have worked that deal out.

But if you were to put Kitty in that car,

she would have put it right to the wood again.

I guarantee she would have.

Seemed like when you want to do something

that's the first time ever done in the world,

everybody wants to stop you for some reason.

I don't understand that.

I feel very disappointed with it.

It's sad. It's very sad.

She suffered in many ways, mentally and physically,

because those things were done to her,

you know, over the years.

And then she just disappeared.

Nobody knew where she was at.

All of a sudden, I get a call

from a mental institution in Texas.

And so I jumped on a plane and went down there

and I went to court and became her legal guardian,

brought her back up to Minneapolis.

And I thought everything was gonna be really good,

and she took up drinking.

Yeah. She... You know, I was 10 years older than her

and she aged very, very fast.

Kitty O'Neil, the fastest woman in the world,

died this week in Eureka, South Dakota.

She was 72 years old.

In December of 1976,

Kitty broke the women's land speed world record.

Her record still stands today.

So it's, um, August 14th.

We leave for the lake bed...

...in, what, six days, seven days?

Um... and I'm still at my mom's house

in Rapid City, South Dakota.

I never left after the Sturgis rally.

My back was doing so good.

And then...

And then I came home with strep throat.

So all the coughing has gotten me

to a point where my back hurts again.

She was overseas filming in Italy.

Her... her back kind of gave her some fits.

You know, she had a... She was in a lot of pain.

You know, I'm sure it's as a result of the injury years ago

that she experienced.

From then, it's, you know,

2 steps forward, 10 steps back.

Nina and I weren't sure that Jessi

was even gonna go to the desert this year.

Alright, guys, this is my first time driving

in, like, two months.

For some odd reason, when I put my foot

down on the throttle,

it just goes straight to my back pain.

So I haven't driven.

I haven't ridden a motorcycle either,

but driving is kind of a big deal

because I really like being able to get myself around.

I'll let you know in 15 minutes if it's sucked.

She stayed at our house

for the 10 days for the Sturgis rally.

We went out for dinner one night and the question

was posed to her, "Do you think it's wise

for you in your condition to get in the car?

You could possibly be paralyzed from the waist down."

Is that really something that you want to risk?"

Jessi began to tell me about challenges in her...

in her personal life and within family and company.

And she was just feeling really convoluted about this decision

to go forward with, you know, setting the record.

"There are people who don't want me to do it.

There's been points where I'm not sure I want to do it."

She said, "But then I most especially feel

like this is what I'm supposed to be doing.

What does that mean?"

This is pretty!

She had had at that point three times now the same dream.

She said, "You know, I drive these cars.

It's like flying a rocket on the ground.

So I'm always looking at the horizon and gauges

and all the stuff."

And she said, "In my dream, I'm in my cockpit,

but I feel like I'm not in my body.

Like I'm just watching it from out here somewhere."

She kind of got real quiet for a second.

She said, "I see myself leaving,"

like, leaving this plane. Do you get what I'm saying?

And I said, "Well, can you die doing this, Jessi?"

And she said, "Well, yeah."

I said, "Okay."

She goes, "But I'm not afraid."

She goes, "I really... I just feel so light.

In this dream, in this vision, it's just this light.

It's the horizon. And I just go, 'Whoo.'"

Mile marker 4 is clear.

That's good. Press it again.

Mile marker 5, clear.

Mile 7 clear.

Okay.

Yeah.

Whoo!

Whew.

Whew.

I wish I could bring all of you with me in that

just so you could feel it. It's so rad.

- I heard you did good. - It was so good.

You feel better? - Much better.

Good.

Little stress relief. Yeah.

Okay. Ready?

Alright. Jessi's top speed...

Well, let's do average first.

- Oh, do average. - Yeah.

503.195.

- Average. - Average.

Top speed... 515 miles per hour.

Saunders, we just have to go faster.

There you go. Alright. I like that.

And let's also consider that was still a shakedown run, too.

So... - Yeah.

We were laughing about that part.

These shakedown runs keep getting faster.

- I like... I love it. - So with that said,

we're no longer testing. - We're racing.

We're running for records, so...

- Amen. - Let's go.

Alright.

She's not shutting down.

Down in the bushes and you got a fire.

Fire.

Where's she at?

Got to get her!

Changing the world.

I make a difference in people's lives

by doing what I love to do.

I think it's... it's what I was born for.

Grief and shock today in the racing community

as news spread that professional driver

and TV host Jessi Combs died in a jet-car crash.

The 39-year-old was trying to break...

Combs died pushing the limits.

There are few details.

Only that there was an accident, and she didn't survive.

We went back and just waited at camp

and I never left the truck,

but I got to sit with her

for a good hour, hour and a half.

And that helped,

but I didn't want to let her go.

The next few days, it was so sad for everybody.

There was so much silence.

This is just like it happened yesterday.

For all of us that were there, it was extremely personal.

The accident scene was something that was horrific

and is gonna last with us for the rest of our lives.

But...

you still have to try and figure it out.

We found the actual parachute.

It was pretty mangled up.

It was scorched like it was in a fire.

This parachute was opened in afterburner

or in full military or something.

And so there was more going on than parachutes not opening.

Some of the team that went

and walked the entire length of the... of the track,

they found pieces of the nose wheel in the 5-mile mark.

So we know that at some point during that 5-mile point,

it impacted something under the dirt,

something that was not visible to the team when they went out

and walked the course prior to the run.

That's the one that was over her shoulder,

if I think. - I would imagine.

Watching that video from the beginning on this run,

everything was going perfect.

From start, she went to full military

and then slid it over

and went up into full afterburner.

And held in at full the entire run.

She was in the shutdown process,

slowing the car down when things went wrong.

She pulls the throttle back

and then all of a sudden, this vibration starts.

You don't know what that vibration is.

Now we know what it was. It was the... the nose wheel.

She went through everything just like she's supposed to do,

like she's always done.

We know that she did all the right things.

We know she did everything that she could physically do.

You know, you don't know why it wouldn't slow down

or why it wasn't stopping.

I did... I did watch that footage and that...

And I needed to see that. I needed to know.

This might seem strange, but it cleared up my mind

of what happened and how she... she left us.

But more importantly,

I was able to tell my other children...

...what had... What had happened

and... and... and that my daughter went quick.

Okay. What I wanted to show you

is I recovered some stuff, the computing equipment.

This is a satellite tracking equipment.

Smells like jet fuel. Complete loss.

However, here's

a computer, soaked in jet fuel,

burnt to a crisp.

So I started dissecting it, and I pulled out this,

which is the pristine hard drive

with all the data on it for Jessi's last run.

It's a miracle.

What does that mean to the team?

It's everything. Right?

I hope to God that I can get the data off of this.

So I can't believe that this has been provided

to us in this condition.

And there's not a purpose for it.

So faith... all I have.

The hard drive that I recovered, I had to bust open

another laptop and replace its hard drive

and prayed that it was going to boot off of it.

And it did, so... And we got the entire run.

Good afternoon.

You have a smile on your face.

Well, you do too.

Well, because you're my favorite person right now.

You.

- You are sitting down. - I am. I am.

Your average speed, fastest mile...

The data was successfully recovered.

- Thank God. - Praise God.

Praise the Lord.

Her maximum velocity was 548.432.

Her average mile was 542.371.

- Yes. - So she did it.

She did it.

Thank you very much.

She did it.

Fans of the speed racer

known as the fastest woman on four wheels

say they are just devastated by her death.

She has officially been announced

as the fastest woman on Earth... 522.783.

In an Instagram post Sunday

about her record-breaking attempt,

Combs wrote, "People say I'm crazy.

I say thank you."

We have been through a lot.

Everybody's processing this differently.

I'm trying to make sense of this.

What does this mean?

Why did God put me here?

Hear the thunder.

The loss of Jessi cannot be reconciled against anything.

There was a young girl in Burns, Oregon,

and she had to be in her early 30s.

They had just come up from the Alvord and then I go like,

"Did you hear the story about the girl that crashed there?"

And she goes, "Oh, my gosh." She goes, "Jessi was amazing.

She impacted my daughter so much."

And I looked at her and I said, "I'm her mother."

She came up to me and she took my face in her hands

and she said, "You are so blessed

because you got to be the mother of a legend."

This bandanna is a representation of Jessi Combs.

It's a banner of strength. It's a banner of courage.

All the blood, sweat and tears she put into being seen,

being heard.

That's the torch that we have to carry for her, for ourselves,

for each other, you know, collectively.

Look at this amazing legacy that has come after her.

Women are continually inspired to say, "I can do this."

And to meet the little girl that was the first recipient

of her scholarship,

to watch this beautiful young woman

have that same light and that same strength,

that power is never going to fade.

Everybody wants to talk about breaking the mold and it's like,

"Why is there a mold to begin with?

Whoever told us to begin with that we couldn't do this?"

What do you want to do? Why aren't you doing it?

Do you need help? Like, what tools do you need to do it?

If there is one person that I'm doing this for,

it's for that little girl that waits for another girl

to cross that finish line, that I can change right then

and there, that she too, can do anything she sets her mind to.

Fear is our number-one battle.

And this is just a physical way of saying

"You don't have to live in fear.

You can live in courage and a life that's completely free."

Even when doubt strikes, even when you want to turn and run,

that you can live confidently in the decisions

that you make and the path that you choose.

And when you can live in a space

where nothing's holding you back,

what else can you accomplish?

What else is out there?