TGTV's Sabine Schmitz will race at the Nürburgring in WTCC

Sabine Schmitz isn’t called the Queen of the ‘Ring for nothing: over the years she has performed a number of extraordinary feats at Germany’s most feared racetrack, not least when she nearly completed a sub-10 minute lap of the 25km circuit in a Ford Transit.

Other than that she has twice won the Nürburgring’s annual 24-hour race with BMW, has made numerous appearances since then for Porsche, and last year she became the first woman to score points in the World Touring Car Championship on her debut at the same venue.

After her 10^th place finish in 2015 she confirmed that she would jump at the opportunity to sample the WTCC again, and that’s exactly what she plans to do when the race runs again later this month.

René Münnich – founder of Münnich Motorsport – has a commitment clash on the weekend of the race, and so Sabine will take his place for another one-off appearance.

“For her first time in the car last year she did a good job,” said the team’s manager, Dominik Greiner. “She will start nearly from zero because it’s been nearly a year since she last drove the Chevrolet and it’s totally different to her Porsche. But if she can score points again then that will be fantastic.”

So will she have enough time to get used to the unfamiliar wheels? Um, apparently not. It seems telly show commitments will force Sabine to miss out on official testing and the first practice session before the race, a situation she says is “a bit of a disaster”.

“I will have a better chance if it rains so my hope is more water, more success!” she added. “Whatever, I must be crazy to measure myself against these guys without the same amount of time to practice.”

Oh, and there'll be another TGTV presence at the Nürburgring in the near future too: Chris Harris will race Jim Glickenhaus's gorgeous P4/5C, now in 'Mk III' specification, for the arduous 24-hour race. We'll be covering his adventures online so stay tuned...