Sabine Schmitz, Former Racing Driver and Top Gear Presenter Passed Away at 51

Widely known as the “Queen of the Nürburgring”, German racing driver and Top Gear presenter Sabine Schmitz has died at age 51.

Reportedly, the female pioneer passed away after a three-year battle with cancer. Schitz mentioned last year that she had been diagnosed with cancer in 2017.

Schmitz is the only woman to win the Nürburgring 24 Hours, which is a 14-mile circuit in Germany known to be the toughest track in the world. She won the race twice, in 1996 and 1997, driving a BMW M3. It is also estimated that she had driven around the track more than 20,000 times. 

The Top Gear reporter also worked as a driver on the circuit’s “ring taxi,”, which allows visitors to do a lap of the course as a passenger. 

"The Nürburgring has lost its most famous female racing driver," the circuit wrote on Twitter.

Over the years, Schmitz gained acclaim for an appearance on Top Gear back in 2004, which she subsequently became a presenter on the show in 2016 alongside Chris Evans

"She gave me pointers on how to drive a Ferrari very fast and hunted me down in a banger race," states the show’s current host, Paddy McGuinness.

Schmitz will be featured in the next episode of the long-running show, according to the BBC.

“Sabine radiated positivity, always wore her cheeky smile no matter how hard things got  and was a force of nature for women drivers in the motoring world," said executive producer, Clare Pizey.