Way, way too young ???? 

From Sky News.

Racing driver and Top Gear star Sabine Schmitz has died aged 51.

The German, widely known as the "Queen of the Nürburgring", had suffered a long illness with cancer.

A statement issued by the famous German racetrack said: "The Nürburgring has lost its most famous female racing driver.

More here:-

https://news.sky.com/story/sabine-schmitz-dead-top-gear-star-and-queen-of-the-nurburgring-racing-driver-dies-aged-51-12248488

And of course, this post would not be complete without this:-

 

 

This from Jetemy Clarkson

 

 

RIP Sabine,

A lovely lady, happy, beautiful, intelligent, strong and with a natural ability to steer that car round the “ ring “ that 99% of men can only dream of .

Sad to hear this.

 

A fantastic woman, & an incredible driver!

I was genuinely sadden why I read the news.

RIP.

Loved to see her. Fantastic driver and brilliant sense humour.

Very sad news .. immensely talented driver with an engaging , infectious personality off the track who did much to advance women's profile in the world of professional Motorsport and one of the few able to put Clarkson in his place as she did when exhorting him to go faster on that lap of the Nordschleife until he achieved a 9:59 .. before promptly loping 40 odd seconds off it herself in the same car with the T G film crew having to employ the services of a professional racing driver to keep up with her in their more powerful model .. her legendary lap in a Transit Van the following year to within 1 1 secs of J C's time made it one of the most viewed episodes of T G and cemented her reputation as an awesome driver .. 

 

RIP. She was awesome and this is sad news, indeed.