6. April 2021

A Tribute to Sabine Schmitz – Queen of Nürburgring (German)

The Nürburgring has lost its most famous female racing driver. Sabine Schmitz left us much too early on March 16, 2021. She was only 51 years old.

As the daughter of a hotelier family from Nürburg, Sabine Schmitz grew up with the Nürburgring. She was on the Nordschleife early on. “We used to take our grandma to the hairdresser’s over the Nordschleife,” she said a few years ago in an interview during the ADAC Total 24h Race. She has been racing the Green Hell since 1990. In 1996 she was the first woman to win the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring alongside Johannes Scheid and Hans Widmann. The following year she repeated the victory. In 1998 she and Johannes Scheid secured the title in the Veedol Langstreckenpokal (now the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie) – also as first lady. In 2005 Sabine Schmitz founded the Frikadelli Racing team together with her husband Klaus Abbelen.

Sabine Schmitz was also known to many Nürburgring fans as a long-time pilot of the Ring Taxi. Countless co-drivers experienced a speedy drive by their side over the most demanding racetrack in the world – the 20.8-kilometer Nordschleife.

In 2017 Sabine Schmitz was diagnosed with cancer. In 2018 she celebrated her comeback in the racing cockpit. In the middle of last year, Schmitz informed her fans about a relapse on social networks.

With Sabine Schmitz we are losing a cheerful, committed woman. It was part of the Nürburgring all its life and will continue to be so.

This tribute video was first aired during the livestream of NLS 1 (27 march 2021) but since the livestream is over 3,5 hours long, we decided to split the video and make a separate video of Sabine’s tribute.

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#Sabine #Tribute
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