Sabine Schmitz was born on May 14, 1969, the youngest daughter of a family of hoteliers from Adenau. She graduated from the hotel industry, to which she devoted herself for a while, but she became famous thanks to the Nürburgring – a racing circuit that is one of the most famous and difficult in the world.
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For a large part of her life, she literally had him behind her – Adenau is right next door and Nürburg, where she ran a restaurant for a while, even inside the North Loop of the Nürburgring. As the only one of the three sisters, she was successful in racing – in 1996 and 1997 she won the overall endurance race in the 24h Nürburgring on BMW cars and in 2008, 2011 and 2012 she placed in the top ten on Porsche.
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Porsche 911 997 GT3-R crew Klaus Abbelen-Sabine Schmitz-Christopher Bruck-Patrick Huismann qualifying for the 24h endurance race of the Nürburgring in May 2012
Photo: Profimedia.cz
In addition, after the “ring” she drove people in the so-called Ring Taxi, ie a fast car in which an ordinary person can experience a ride on the North Loop in the hands of a professional driver. This service is operated by its company Sabine Schmitz Motorsport together with advanced driver training.
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According to her own estimates, she circled more than 20,000 laps on the North Loop, and this number increased by about 1,200 each year. That is why she earned the nickname “Queen of the Nürburgring”.
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The Nürburgring has lost its most famous female racing driver.
Sabine Schmitz passed away far too early after a long illness. We will miss her and her cheerful nature. Rest in peace Sabine! pic.twitter.com/MFKNNFOSDU
— Nürburgring (@nuerburgring) March 17, 2021
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She also appeared on the TV show Top Gear, for the first time in the 5th row, when she helped Jeremy Clarkson set a time of 9:59 in the Jaguar S-Type. Then she got behind the wheel alone and set the time at 9:12. Then she stated that she would give it a delivery in less than ten minutes.
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Such an attempt took place in the 6th row with a diesel Ford Transit, but unsuccessfully – the best time she reached was 10:08. All three attempts were run on a version of the track with a length of 19.1 km. As a reminder, the entire North Loop is 20.8 km long and holds the record among road cars held by the Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series with a time of 6:43.
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A group of Top Gear presenters on the 23rd series of this TV show. From left: Rory Reid, Chris Evans, Chris Harris, Eddie Jordan, Sabine Schmitz and Matt LeBlanc
Photo: Profimedia.cz
Schmitz later acted as a presenter at Top Gear, albeit irregularly. This was the case in the ranks 23–26, ie in 2016–2019.
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Since 2017, she has been fighting cancer and at first the fight was successful, but during the covid pandemic, the disease returned. Sabine Schmitz succumbed to her on March 17, 2021.
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