To many people Sabine Schmitz will always be the smiling, joking antagonist of Top Gear fame – always willing to give as good as she got.
For others, she is the Queen of the Nurburgring, known for offering paying passengers thrilling laps of the track in the “BMW Taxi”.
There was little doubt that Sabine would become involved in motor racing – she was, after all, born inside the ring and only 300 yards from the track.
Sabine was a pioneer, winning the famed Nurburgring 24 hour endurance race not once but twice in the late 90s – the only woman to ever have won the race.
In addition to her many formal race wins, she once drove a diesel transit van around the ring missing Jeremy Clarkson’s by a mere 9 seconds. Oh – Clarkson was driving a Jag! You read that right – 9 seconds, in a transit van. Against a Jag.
There are a few superb memories of Sabine on TV – for example, the time she told Jeremy Clarkson that he was only 80% without talent! Or how about when she threw Hammond out of the aforementioned transit because he was ballast and slowing down the van. Perhaps a favourite is the time Chris Evans had to make her pull over half-way around Laguna Seca so he could throw up out of the passenger door! She is, to many, an absolute legend.
Diagnosed with cancer in 2017, Sabine lost her battle three years later, at the age of 51. She was energetic, actually she was positively effervescent and consistently, fantastically and gloriously unhinged. In a world that can sometimes seem dull and monotone, Sabine was very much hi-def.
