Rival Driver Loek Hartog Pulls Ollie Millroy From Burning Ferrari in China GT Crash

A 23-year-old Dutch driver stopped his car beside a blazing Ferrari and hauled a rival to safety after a high-speed crash halted the China GT race in Shanghai on Saturday.

Loek Hartog, who races a Porsche for Phantom Global Racing in the China GT Championship, was 20 minutes into the opening race when a collision between two cars sent one of them into the side of Ollie Millroy's Ferrari 296 GT3 — a purpose-built racing version of the road car, tuned for sprint racing on circuits. The impact caused the Ferrari to burst into flames. The race was immediately red-flagged and did not resume. (The Guardian, 6 September)

Millroy, 35, said afterwards that no track marshals or fire crews were in sight when his car caught fire (Motorsport.com, 5 September). Hartog, driving his #79 Porsche, pulled up alongside the wreck, tore off part of the Ferrari's door, grabbed a fire extinguisher from a nearby official, and reached in from the opposite side to pull Millroy out. He then used the extinguisher to knock down enough of the blaze for both men to get clear (DailySportsCar, 5 September; Sportscar365, 6 September).

Speaking after the incident, Hartog said he never doubted his decision to run towards the fire. "There was never a moment of doubt," he said, per The Guardian.

Millroy was taken to hospital, where he was treated for multiple fractures and a bruised lung. On Instagram, he listed his injuries in detail: five broken ribs, a broken collarbone, a broken hand and finger, and the bruised lung. He credited Hartog with saving his life. "I owe him everything," he wrote, per The Guardian.

The response of race organisers has drawn sharp criticism. Millroy's team, FIST Auto, said it would not compete in future China GT rounds until it had discussed safety concerns directly with organisers. The team also accused the broadcast of wrongly telling viewers that drivers had escaped their cars unaided, when Millroy had in fact been pulled from a burning car by a fellow competitor (The Guardian, 6 September).

China GT organisers issued a statement acknowledging a "shortcoming" and pledged to review the accident and address gaps in competition organisation, emergency response, rescue, and medical services (The Guardian, 6 September).

In GT3 racing — the category used in sprint series worldwide, where production-based sports cars are modified for circuit competition — drivers expect rapid marshal intervention at any crash site. The absence Millroy described, and the time it took for professional rescue to reach him, will be central to the review now underway.

For now, one driver is in hospital with serious injuries, another is being hailed across motorsport for extraordinary composure under fire, and a championship is facing hard questions about whether its safety infrastructure was adequate.