Sabine Schmitz, Top Gear star and race champion: a life in pictures

Top Gear and racing fans mourn the loss of Sabine Schmitz, the first woman to win the 24-hours challenge on the infamous Nürburgring and the popular presenter of BBC's automotive programme. She was 51 years old when she died.

The Top Gear team remembers its presenter as someone who "radiated positivity, always wore her cheeky smile no matter how hard things got and was a force of nature for female drivers in the motoring world." Journalist Chris Harris calls her a "wonderful, powerful, hilarious person." Schmitz managed to make people across the world - both women and men - excited about the challenges of the "Green Hell," a nickname for the notorious parcours in Nürnberg and its harrowing 24-hour races.

Top Gear also quoted presenter Jeremy Clarkson, who'd introduced the German racer to Britain in 2004, saying that she was "such a sunny person and so full of beans." Journalist Matt Bishop tweeted that she was "rightly known as 'Queen of the Nürburgring,'" as he lamented the star's death from cancer at the young age of 51.

Sabine Schmitz was born in Adenau in the German Eifel region in May 1969. She and her two sisters grew up in the city of Nurnberg, home of the famous Nürburgring race track. Her parents owned a restaurant and she was trained as a hospitality entrepreneur as well.

(Image: Twitter, Neurburgring)

Schmitz's fame, however, would come from her love of cars and her talent as a racer. In an interview with Top Gear, she recalled that her older sister taught her how to drive as a teenager. "I didn’t have a licence at that time, nobody really cared," she said. "On my 18th birthday, I got my licence without any problems. In fact, I tried to teach the driving instructor how to shift gears faster…"

All Schmitz sisters got into racing, but Sabine was most successful. Along with this image on her Facebook page, she remembered one of her early adventures. "Racing in the 90’s, we were two girls in the first row starting grid Deutsche Tourenwagen Challenge, I guess. Claudia Hürtgen and me. But I rolled the car in the first race lap touching the curbs sideways." She then joked: "At least it was a good show for the spectators."

Sabine Schmitz would be the first woman to win the 24-hours race on the Nürburgring. In both 1996 and 1997 she came in first, driving with fellow racer Johannes Scheid. Later, Schmitz would win several times with Frikadelli Racing, a team she represented for years.

Over time, Sabine Schmitz became known to the audience of the Nurnberg races as the adventurous driver one of the two 'ring taxis' around the 20.8 kilometre race track. Her 'parallel racing' along the parcours was very entertaining and soon enough she got the nicknames 'fastest taxi driver in the world' and even 'the Queen of the Ring.' Daily Sportscar recounts that "she adored the ‘Ring and knew it on an almost innate level, having driven tens of thousands of laps and competed in countless races there."

While working as a TV host and racing commenter in German sports shows, Sabine Schmitz began to participate in BBC's Top Gear in 2004. By 2016, she was one of its regular presenters.

Schmitz, here pictured with Top Gear colleague Rory Reid, was the only woman on the team, but she often beat the others in speed and agility when driving all kinds of cars.

(Image: Facebook, Sabine Schmitz Motorsport)

She once famously mocked presenter Jeremy Clarkson for his low speed in a Jaguar S-Type on the Nürburgring. After saying, "I do that lap time in a van," she took the wheel of the Jaguar and beat his time with 47 seconds. A few years later, Schmitz would even repeat the race in an actual Ford Transit van, and indeed, she got close to Clarkson's original Jaguar time.

Top Gear cites Sabine's colleague McGuinness, here on the photo: "She gave me pointers on how to drive a Ferrari very fast and hunted me down in a banger race. Brilliantly bonkers and an amazing human being!"

(Image: Facebook, Sabine Schmitz Motorsport)

As journalist Chris Harris recalls on the Top Gear site, "I think she loved how much she could shock middle-aged men who thought they could drive a bit – until they saw what she could do."

Until becoming a presenter for Top Gear, Schmitz continued to work regularly in the family hotel business. Daily Sportscar described her as "down-to-earth" and recalled that "the DSC crew [was] astonished to be shown to their rooms there, after arriving hopelessly late, by the instantly recognisable and still smiling ‘Ring racing icon!"

According to Chris Harris, Sabine Schmitz "was a bundle of energy, one of those people whose resting facial expression was a huge grin, and she was so much fun to be around and to work alongside." He adds that "she had been battling cancer for some time, but I suppose we just assumed that it being Sabine – unstoppable Sabine – she would win that one as well."

In July 2020, Schmitz posted a shocking message on Facebook. She said (in German) that she was suffering from 'an extremely persistent cancer' since late 2017. At first, the treatment had succeeded in pushing back the cancer, but by 2020, the racer had relapsed.

"I now have to spare all my energy to face the next (chemo)therapy again," she explained to her fans. In the text and an additional video, the sympathetic racer thanked all the people who had reached out to her and expressed her wish that they would see each other on the track soon.

In what would be the last year of her life, Sabine Schmitz regularly posted photos of herself doing the things she liked most, such as travelling, horse riding, or flying a helicopter.

(Image: Facebook, Sabine Schmitz Motorsport)

Sabine Schmitz had no children. After being married to a hotelier from 2000 to 2003, she tied the not a second time with Klaus Abbelen, a fellow racer. Schmitz loved animals and was often pictured with her horses or dogs - such as this one on her Facebook page.

Schmitz could not overcome the cancer and passed away on 16 March 2021 at age 51. Fans, colleagues, and also the Nürnburgring's management took to social media to say goodbye to the cheerful and most famous female racing icon.