Mille Miglia 2000 - BMW to participate again with 10 vintage touring and racing cars

Like in previous years, BMW Mobile Tradition will be starting at the
Mille Miglia from 25.-28 May in Brescia, Italy - this time with 10
perfectly prepared touring and racing cars, steered by prominent
drivers and passengers. BMW celebrates a round anniversary with this
year's Mille Miglia: 60 years ago, on April 28, 1940 the legendary
racing driver Fritz Huschke von Hanstein (1911 - 1996) and Walter
Bäumer drove to victory unchallenged on the 1600 km course of the
Mille Miglia, the world's longest and toughest road race at the time.
The 29-year old von Hanstein achieved this triumph on a BMW 328 Mille
Miglia coupé with the start no. 70. The "racing baron"
took the lead right from the start and completed the entire distance in
less than nine hours with an average speed of approximately 170 km/h.
74 contestants took part in the race that year. At the finish the BMW
Team had a 15 minute lead on the Alfa Romeo works team, which had
dominated the previous races almost unchallenged. This was the most
significant victory the still young BMW car company had achieved until
then. The victory was rounded off by the excellent positions of the 328
MM roadsters in places 3, 5 and 6. Today the winning car is privately
owned by an American collector. So in 1999 BMW decided to faithfully
reproduce this racing car. The copy, which was already on display at
this year's Techno Classica in Essen, will also be exhibited in
Brescia. Participating in the race, however, will be the BMW 328 Mille
Miglia roadster which took third place in 1940 driven by Brudes/Roese.
This year, too, famous drivers and passengers will be riding in the
BMWs: former touring car racing stars such as Prinz Leopold of Bavaria
or the father of the BMW Formula 1 championship in 1983, Paul Rosche.
It was he who paved the way for the new and highly successful Formula 1
engines, with which BMW is successfully racing in the highest
motor-racing class again. Rosche's successor as BMW motorsports
director, Mario Theissen, wouldn't be done out of participating, nor
the AvD president Wolfgang Fürst Ysenburg, the ADAC automobile
club sports president Hermann Tomczyk, "auto motor und sport"
magazine editor in chief Bernd Ostmann or the Italian actress Paola
Perego. All attention, however, will be focussed on the 5-times winner
(three times on BMW) Giuliano Cané, who, accompanied by his
partner Lucia Galliani, is the favourite for overall victory in his BMW
328 Millia Miglia roadster with the start number 100. This is the
entire BMW starter list: