(VIDEO) Racing Driver Ollie Millroy Says Rival Loek Hartog Saved His Life After Fiery China GT Crash

SHANGHAI — British racing driver Ollie Millroy says he owes his life to fellow competitor Loek Hartog, after the Dutch driver stopped his own car mid-race and pulled Millroy from a burning Ferrari following a horrific multi-car crash at the China GT Championship in Shanghai on Saturday.

The crash occurred roughly 20 minutes into the opening race of the weekend at Shanghai International Circuit. According to Motorsport.com, the incident began as Neil Verhagen's BMW battled David Chen's Ferrari on the approach to Turn 14, with Verhagen moving partly onto the grass while attempting to pass and losing control of his car on the damp surface, making contact with Chen's Ferrari. Both cars then slid toward the hairpin, where Millroy's AAI Motorsports Ferrari was struck from the side and immediately caught fire. The race was red-flagged on the spot.

Millroy, 36, suffered five broken ribs, a fractured collarbone, a broken hand and finger, and a bruised lung in the crash, according to details he shared publicly. In a social media post following the incident, Millroy described the extent of his gratitude toward Hartog, the 23-year-old Dutch driver who stopped his own Porsche to help.

"I am still alive tonight, entirely thanks to one man," Millroy wrote. "Loek Hartog stopped instantly with no flag marshals or fire crews in sight and risked his own life to get me out of the car. I don't remember anything between 30 seconds before the crash and one hour after it, but I will remember his incredible act of bravery for the rest of my life."

Millroy went further in describing the lasting impact of Hartog's actions on his family.

"One day I will tell our three kids this story and Loek will be the biggest superhero in history in their eyes too," Millroy wrote. "Thank you Loek. I owe you my life for your selfless act today."

On-board footage from Hartog's Phantom Global Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo captured the rescue in real time, showing the Dutchman stopping near the accident scene, climbing out of his own car and running toward Millroy's burning vehicle without hesitation. According to SportsCar365, Hartog first attempted to free Millroy by ripping off the passenger's side door before someone, possibly a track marshal, handed him a fire extinguisher. Hartog then used the extinguisher to knock down enough of the flames to climb into the cockpit himself and pull Millroy to safety.

Speaking about his own decision to stop and intervene, Hartog described his actions as instinctive rather than deliberate.

"When I saw a car turning into a huge fireball far ahead, there wasn't really a decision to make," Hartog said.

The rescue has drawn scrutiny toward the speed and adequacy of the official emergency response at the circuit. AAI Motorsports co-driver Yin Yu Chen criticized what she described as a delayed response from track personnel following the crash.

"For about a minute and a half, Ollie was left alone in the car without any immediate assistance from the fire brigade or emergency services," Chen said. "For this reason, I must thank Loek Hartog for everything he did today. He didn't hesitate for a single moment to stop and come to Ollie's aid when he needed help the most."

Chen said her team accepted that motorsport inherently carries risk but believed the response to Saturday's accident specifically fell short of an acceptable standard.

Millroy's team, FIST Team AAI, issued a formal statement following the incident announcing that it would withdraw entirely from the remainder of the China GT Championship season. The team's statement pushed back directly against early characterizations of the incident during the event's live broadcast.

"It is particularly distressing that during the live broadcast, the organizers did not verify the situation on the scene, and hastily said the drivers left the cars on their own," the team wrote. "The actual situation is: our driver was rescued from the burning car by Loek Hartog, regardless of his own safety."

The team said it is demanding a comprehensive investigation into the circumstances surrounding the crash, including questions related to circuit safety protocols, the accuracy of the event's live broadcast coverage, and the dissemination of official information about the incident in its immediate aftermath.

Team owner Betty Chen separately addressed the incident in her own social media post, emphasizing that the team's primary concern remained Millroy's well-being even as questions about the emergency response continued to circulate.

"The most important thing is that Ollie is okay," Chen said, according to Yahoo Sports' account of her statement. "Things could have turned out very differently."

Hartog, a former Porsche Motorsport North America Selected Driver, has drawn widespread praise across the motorsport community following the rescue, with fans and fellow competitors describing his split-second decision to abandon his own competitive race in order to assist a rival driver in immediate danger as an extraordinary act of selflessness under extreme pressure.

Millroy has continued expressing gratitude publicly in the days since the crash, closing his initial social media statement by thanking the broader racing community for its support during his recovery.

"Thank you to everyone for your kind messages," Millroy wrote. "I'm counting my lucky stars tonight."

As Millroy continues recovering from his injuries away from competition, questions surrounding the circuit's emergency response protocols and the accuracy of the event's official broadcast are expected to remain a point of scrutiny for organizers of the China GT Championship, particularly given FIST Team AAI's decision to withdraw from the remainder of the season and its explicit call for a full investigation into what went wrong during the critical minutes following Saturday's crash. For now, the incident has been defined publicly not by the failures in the emergency response, but by Hartog's split-second decision to risk his own safety in order to save a fellow competitor's life on the track.