An absolutely wild scene played out during Round 1 of the China GT Championship at Shanghai when a three-car pileup produced an exploding Ferrari and the subsequent heroic actions of a driver not originally involved in the tangle.
For those that have or haven’t seen the clips already, things went south after David Chen in the No. 37 Harmony Racing Ferrari defended down the straight against Neil Verhagen. The two cars clipped each other and began sliding out of control through the grass and then back onto the track, where they then both collected Ollie Millroy and upon impact saw Millroy’s Ferrari 296 explode in a fireball.
@motorsportmediahub A WILD accident played out in Race 1 of the China GT Championship at Shanghai International Circuit. Chen Weian of the No. 37 Harmony Ferrari defended the straight from Neil Verhagen in the No. 33 TBC by 610 Racing BMW, as both cars spun out of control and back onto the track they collided with Ollie Millroy 🤯 All three drivers made it out of their cars and were transported to the medical center #racing #motorsports #chinagt #gt3 #ferrari ♬ original sound – Motorsport Media Hub
In the initial aftermath, drivers were seen out of the vehicles and resting up against the barrier before the safety crews had arrived on scene.
As it turns out, the response from the safety crew at the Shanghai Circuit was nothing short of a complete and utter clown show, and it was fellow driver Loek Hartog who made the split-second decision to stop his Porsche right on the track and make a beeline over to Millroy’s Ferrari, which was still on fire.
The onboard camera from Hartog’s 911 GT3 Evo is simply amazing – especially considering it was Hartog who used the fire extinguisher on Millroy’s car to quell the flames before he dragged him out of the burning wreck.
Now, why did Hartog have the fire extinguisher? More on that in a second.
Millroy is making his recovery but suffered a litany of injuries including five broken bones and a broken collarbone. He took to Instagram himself to post about the amazing act of selflessness from Hartog, and to highlight that things likely would have gone way worse if the Ducthman did not react in the way that he did.
Even Hartog’s response to the post was all class –
Back to how poorly the safety team responded to the massive wreck – it was nothing short of an unorganized disaster, so much so that we had drivers and teams removing themselves from the race or maybe the entire China GT series all together.
Verhagen’s teammate in the 610Racing BMW, Yang Baije, revealed that race control, the stewards and pretty much everyone else associated with the Shanghai circuit gave absolutely zero fucks in the aftermath of the wreck, which red flagged the race and was ultimately called off after just about 15 minutes of action.
Baije’s quotes are some all-time stuff, with him claiming the safety crew that first arrived on the scene were so goddamn scared of the situation that THEY HANDED THE FIRE EXTINGUSHER TO HARTOG!
Never mind that – the ambulance was LATE to arriving at the wreck because the goddamn driver was ASLEEP at the wheel, and he couldn’t be woken up even as someone was knocking at the window.
Yang Baijie, the teammate of Neil Verhagen in the TBC by 610Racing BMW, which was also involved in the crash, will withdraw from the Xiaomi China GT Championship as well out of protest.
— Vincent Bruins 🧡 (@VincentJBruins) September 5, 2026
"The rescue crew left the scene after handing over the fire extinguisher [to Loek Hartog] out…
Talk about incompetency of the highest degree.
Hopefully more teams stick it to China GT for their utterly embarrassing display, yet either way thank the Lord that every driver involved made it out alive.
For Millroy and Hartog, this is absolutely the start of a bromance that will last for decades to come, and you just can’t say it enough – what Loek Hartog did in that moment is nothing short of heroic.
