A year full of tradition. Father and son (Johannes) drive together for the first time in a Schubert BMW Z4 M Coupe, and climb onto the podium as winners five times. In the second round of the VLN series, Hans suffers one of the most serious accidents of his career. He is taken to hospital with a broken breastbone, cardiac compression and a chipped lumbar vertebra. After just six weeks’ enforced break, he takes part in the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring, and achieves his fifth overall victory and a class victory.

In December he rejected an extension of his BMW contract and moved to Volkswagen AG, where he now faces a new challenge as motor sport consultant for the group. As a leaving present at the BMW Motorsport party, Dr. Mario Theissen followed a very emotional speech by presenting Hans with a map of Wolfsburg to help him in the future.

The year starts with victory in another endurance classic, the 24-hour race in Dubai. Racing with Dieter Quester and Phillip Peter for Team Duller Motorsport, Hans wins in a BMW M3.

In the second round of the GP Masters series in Qatar (AE), he drops out after a collision with Stefan Johannson. At the last round to date of the GP Masters in Silverstone (GB), Hans narrowly misses out on a podium place, finishing fourth in an exciting race dominated by rain. In the VLN Championship at the Nürburgring, he claims several class victories in Team Schubert Motorsport’s BMW 120d. Hans also competed in the Truck Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, guiding a Team Allgäu MAN race truck to fifth place.

Following the announcement – made in February – that Hans was to once again contest the Nürburgring 24-hour race with BMW, he started his preparation programme. Together with Dirk Müller, he contested the season opener of the BFGoodrich Endurance Championship, at the wheel of the BMW M3 GTR. Unfortunately, the race had to be red-flagged due to dense fog. To gain further Nordschleife experience, Hans took part of several events for Schubert Motors, in a BMW 320i. While doing so, he made a vital contribution to his brand-mate Claudia Hürtgen’s title win in this championship.

On 7th May, the race was back on. Together with Jörg Müller and Dirk Müller, Hans contested the classic endurance event at the Nürburgring, which he had already won three times. However, the trio suffered a lot of bad luck and spent a much of their time in the garage for repair work. At the end of the day though, Hans once again had reason to be happy, as the BMW M3 GTR wearing the No 1 finished runner-up, with only one car having completed more laps of the ‘Green Hell’: the second BMW M3 GTR entered by Team BMW Motorsport, driven by Duncan Huisman, Pedro Lamy, Andy Priaulx and Boris Said.

When the season was over, Hans was fully concentrated on the new GP Masters series. In the inaugural round, held on 13th November at Kyalami, and won by Nigel Mansell, Hans produced a strong performance to finish sixth.

Hans claims his third win in the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring, following his victories in 1970 and 1998. He wins in the BMW M3 GTR alongside Jörg Müller and Dirk Müller.

"Psychologically, it was the most strenuous race I have ever entered,“ says Hans after crossing the line in his BMW M3 GTR. “The difficult weather conditions meant you were constantly riding on a razor's edge. But despite that it was tremendous fun. I have to express my special praise for the engineers. They handed us a perfectly functioning BMW M3 GTR."

Seven weeks later, Hans teams up with the two Müllers to take sixth place overall at the 24-hour classic at Spa-Francorchamps. This gives the trio the GT2 class victory.

Hans had previously won two races in the endurance cup, and one race in the BELCAR series at the Nürburgring.

Due to the withdrawal of BMW from the ALMS, Hans only drives one race with the V8-powered M3 of Team Scheid. The race is the ADAC 24-hour race at the Nürburgring – he fails to finish.

He becomes spokesperson for BMW’s commitment to the America’s Cup with ORACLE BMW Racing, spending 3 months in New Zealand. At this time he has the privilege of sailing as the 17th man on one of the USA 76’s training runs.

This is the third year of driving in the USA with Boris Said and BMW Team PTG, and starts with a third place in Texas. This is the last race for the 6-cylinder E46 M3. On the debut of the V8-powered M3 GTR, he takes a second place at Sears Point. He wins at Portland and finishes third at Mosport. He finishes the season with a win in the Petit Le Mans, co-driving with Boris Said and Bill Auberlen. 

He has the honour of setting a record time at the Nordschleife, driving the 750 horsepower, V12-powered BMW X5 Le Mans. With a target of less than eight minutes he covers the historic 20.8 kilometre circuit in 7:49.92, reaching 311 km/h on the straight. He fails to complete the ADAC 24-hour race at the Nürburgring with Team Scheid.

The new century begins with another year driving with Boris Said and BMW Team PTG in the ALMS.  Hans finishes first at Sears Point, but gets disqualified because of an oversized fuel cell. He also takes first place at Laguna Seca, second at Mosport and third at Las Vegas. He wins the VW Beetle Cup in Road Atlanta from 14th place on the grid.