Every so often, one has to admire pure, adrenaline-pumping physical courage.

Twenty-three-year-old Dutch racing driver Loek Hartog exemplified that kind of heroism in early September at the 2026 China GT Championship in Shanghai. After fellow driver Ollie Millroy’s vehicle burst into flames when an off-course vehicle slammed into his car, Hartog single-handedly dragged Millroy from the fiery wreckage, with “fire marshals and stewards nowhere to be seen.”

Even under ordinary circumstances, racing is not a career for the faint of heart, but a report in the South China Morning Post indicates that the situation was likely worsened by negligence. Another driver involved in the crash reported seeing emergency staff—poorly paid “gig workers”—drop their fire extinguishers and flee the scene. It apparently took 15 minutes for an ambulance to arrive.

Millroy’s team, AAI Motorsports, was even more scathing in its criticisms:

“The event organiser was grossly negligent in its emergency response and safety rescue arrangements, with serious deficiencies in the rescue response that nearly resulted in a tragedy. Even more outrageously, during the live broadcast of the accident, event staff failed to verify the on-site situation and hastily reported that the driver had left the wrecked vehicle on his own.”

Following surgery at a Shanghai hospital, a grateful Millroy—who sustained six broken ribs, a broken collarbone, a broken hand, and a punctured lung—acknowledged that Hartog “risked his own life to get me out of the car.” Millroy added, “I don’t remember anything between 30 seconds before the crash and 1 hour after it, but I will remember his incredible act of bravery for the rest of my life.”

Hartog (who as a Dutchman is one of the tallest drivers in racing) began racing full-time at the tender age of 17, and won the Porsche Cup in 2025. The media have been playing up the fact that Millroy was his “rival,” but Hartog replied on social media that there was “never a moment of doubt” about going to Millroy’s aid. In a modest statement after the events, he said:

“It’s been a bit of a roller coaster ever since. We’d now like to use the momentum it has, of course, to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again…. I’m not really the kind of person that likes to come across or talk about these things as a heroic act because for me, it feels like something that everybody should do, or at least after seeing this, is inspired to act in the same way.”

We look forward to watching this high-integrity young man’s future unfold, both on and off the racetrack.