Sabine Schmitz: ‘The Queen of the Nurburgring’ and Top Gear star

The first and only woman to win the Nurburgring 24 Hours race, Schmitz was a hugely competitive spirit and endlessly fascinated by speed and adventure

Schmitz was a pioneer for women in motor sport (Alamy Stock Photo)

Totally unfazed by any challenges that came her way, Sabine Schmitz, who has died from cancer aged 51, was a vivacious and highly successful racing driver with a fearless natural talent that saw her popularly dubbed, “The Queen of the Nurburgring.” A noted specialist in endurance driving, having become the first and only woman to win the Nurburgring 24 Hours race, this dynamic force of nature subsequently found herself very much a pioneering figurehead for women in motor sport. Proving no less successful when in front of the cameras, appearances both on German television and here on BBC’s Top Gear brought her bubbly personality to a whole new audience worldwide.

The youngest daughter of a hotelier, Sabine Schmitz was born in the town of Adenau, at that time in West Germany and close to the Belgium border. It was located within the perimeter of Nurburgring Nordschleife, the iconic motor sports complex that loops around and warmly embraces the village of Nurburg. In service since 1927, this twisting fourteen-mile course once regularly hosted Formula One races but was eventually considered far too dangerous. Redeveloped in 1971 and open to the general public when there is no racing, it soon became Sabine’s playground, her father invariably using the track when taking the family out on their weekly shopping excursion to the wholesalers.

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Fired by a hugely competitive spirit and endlessly fascinated by speed and adventure, while at school her many activities included horse riding, cycling, roller blading and, in the winter months, cross-country skiing. She would later become a helicopter pilot as well as a keen scuba diver. Schmitz was only 17 years old – and without either a driving licence or her parents’ permission – when she did her first lap of the Nurburgring in her mother’s BMW. Aged19, driving a Ford Sierra Cosworth, she set a new lap record of eight minutes and 16 seconds. Along with sisters Petra and Susanne, all three began racing as amateurs, but only Sabine went on to graduate to the professional ranks.

Schmitz appeared on both German and British TV (PA)

She first came to prominence in 1996 when driving for the BMW works team. In the company of co-driver, Johannes Scheid, she steered a BMW M3 that she nicknamed the Eifel Thunderbolt to history by becoming the first and only woman ever to win the 24 Hours Nurburgring, an annual touring car and GT endurance race. The couple repeated the feat the following year. In 2008 she finished third. For several years , following the break-up of her first marriage, she lived and raced in South Africa. It was there that she had her only serious crash when a jealous rival ran her off the track. In all she competed in 89 races, claiming five victories together with 16 podium finishes.

Away from the race track, in the company of her second husband, Klaus Abbelen, the couple ran a Western-themed boutique hotel which allowed her time to indulge her love of horses. They also owned and developed the Frikadelli Racing Team. Jointly entering the 2016 24 Hours Nurburgring race in a £400,000 Porsche, they also competed regularly in America at Daytona. Part of their remit was to offer rides in what became known as Ring Taxis. Customers would pay €225 to be driven at breakneck speed around the Nurburgring, often with Schmitz herself at the wheel. Frequently throwing up at the end of their terrifying experience, one passenger even died of a heart attack.

Schmitz made former Top Gear presenter Chris Evans ill when driving him around the Laguna Seca circuit in California (PA)

Becoming an occasional motor sport commentator on German television, there in 2006 she began hosting the popular D-Motor programme. She had made her first appearance here on Top Gear two years earlier. Sharing a Jaguar S-Type with Jeremy Clarkson, she was filmed advising him on how to best complete a circuit of the Nurburgring. In the midst of belittling his driving skill, she had suggested that she could do it far quicker in a van. Thus, in one of her most popular contributions, at the wheel of a Ford Transit alongside a worried Richard Hammond, she eventually only missed out by a mere nine seconds. However, when driving a Jaguar, she shaved 47 seconds off his lap time.

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Following Clarkson’s suspension by the BBC in March 2015, and the departure of fellow hosts, Richard Hammond and James May, Schmitz stayed with Top Gear, proving to be one of the few bright spots following its relaunch. When filmed racing sports cars at California’s Laguna Seca circuit she had Chris Evans as her passenger. An increasingly queasy-looking Evans, having begged her to slow down, was then violently sick. She also had the same effect on a supposedly hard-bitten American fighter pilot. While Evans left the show after only one series, she remained until 2020. Following her death, to honour her achievements, the BBC broadcast a special edition of Top Gear.

Twice married, she is survived by her second husband, her mother and two sisters.

Sabine Schmitz, racing driver, commentator and television presenter, born 14 May 1969, died 16 March 2021