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Motorsport mourns Sabine Schmitz.
Born in Nürburg, who was the first woman to win the 24-hour race in the “Green Hell” under the name Sabine Reck in 1996, together with Johannes Scheid and Hans Widmann, died on Tuesday at the age of 51 of the consequences of a rare cancer.
Her stepbrother René Schmitz confirmed this to the German Press Agency.
The "Queen of the Nordschleife" - as Schmitz was called among colleagues and fans - won the long-distance classic a second time in 1997 and is still the only woman on the list of winners.
In 1998 Schmitz also became the first female pilot to secure the title in the VLN endurance championship.
Later, the trained hotel specialist did countless laps on the Nordschleife as a driver of the ring taxi and hosted various motorsport TV formats.
Known worldwide through "Top Gear"
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Schmitz became known worldwide in 2004 through an appearance on the BBC cult program "Top Gear".
There she taught Jeremy Clarkson, who is notoriously a macho, the ideal line on the Nordschleife and thus helped him to complete a lap in a Jaguar S-Type Diesel in less than ten minutes.
From 2016 she was part of the team for the British cult show "Top Gear"
Source: pa / empics / Andrew Matthews
A year later, Schmitz tried on the show to undercut this time at the wheel of a Ford Transit, a delivery van with a 136 hp diesel engine, and ultimately only just failed.
The video of their attempt currently has over five million views on YouTube.
In 2016 she finally co-hosted the new edition of "Top Gear" in England.
With her second husband, the meat manufacturer and amateur racing driver Klaus Abbelen, she founded the Frikadelli Racing team in 2005.
As reported by the "Motorsport-Total" portal, Schmitz has suffered from a rare vulvar carcinoma since 2017.
Many operations, chemotherapy and severe septic shock followed.
Schmitz fought his way back onto the track and drove a few races in 2019, but another attempt at comeback in the following year failed.
Sabine Schmitz in her element: 2017 at a race on her home track at the Nürburg
Source: pa / photo booth / perey