Top Gear and German racing legend, Sabine Schmitz, has tragically passed away aged 51 after a long battle with cancer. – By Madellene Kalunda.
Nurburgring, the iconic German racing track which is regarded as one of the most challenging circuits in motorsport, revealed the tragic news of her death on Wednesday morning.
Schmitz said last year that she had been diagnosed with cancer in 2017.
She had become synonymous with the Nurburgring Nordschleife, the 14-mile circuit in Germany that is renowned as the toughest in the world.
She won the 24-hour touring car race at the track twice, in 1996 and 1997, driving a BMW M3.
She became known as the “Queen of the Nurburgring” and estimated she had driven around the track more than 20,000 times.
Schmitz, known as the Queen of the Nurburgring, was a familiar face on British television due to her spell on the BBC’s flagship motor racing show over the years.
The TV star first appeared alongside Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May back in 2004 and retained a recurring role throughout various iterations of the show.
She became an instant hit with fans after racing a Ford Transit van around the Nurburgring in an attempt to get under the 10 minute mark; a feat she missed out on by just eight seconds.
Schmitz later gained acclaim for an appearance on Top Gear in 2004 in which she drove a van around the track, and subsequently became a presenter on the show alongside Chris Evans in 2016.
Last year, Schmitz, the only female winner of the 24 Hours of Nurburgring, revealed she had been secretly battling cancer since 2017, having been forced to pull out of a racing event at the last minute.
