British racing driver Ollie Millroy says it a “miracle I’m alive” after fellow driver Loek Hartog saved him from his car when it was engulfed in flames.
Millroy, 36, was hit by two other cars during the China GT Championship race at the Shanghai International Circuit 11 days ago, with his Ferrari immediately catching fire before hitting the safety barriers.
A barely conscious Millroy was stuck in his car for over a minute before he was pulled from the burning wreckage by Dutchman Hartog after he immediately stopped his car to help him.
“He acted instantly and he did everything right,” a recovering Millroy told BBC Sport from his hospital bed in China.
“Watching the video back, it looks like you’re watching a movie and everything’s rehearsed.
“He ran around to check on me and realised the fire was too bad, and went round to the passenger side and realised he wasn’t going to get me out of there; got an extinguisher, kept the fire off me for long enough to get inside the car and get me out of it.
“Every single step was perfectly executed. If you look at the photos and videos of the car, the fact I’ve got out without life-changing burns or even the fact I’m alive – it’s a miracle.
“It was as though it was meant to be,” added Millroy. “I’m not religious in any way, but it was as though someone had pre-programmed him to get me out of that car.
“It’s created this really strong bond between us. I didn’t have any memory of the crash, the first time anyone talked me through it was Loek in the hospital and the two of us were just in floods of tears when you were telling me what happened and what [he] did and how different the result could have been for me.”
Millroy, who suffered several fractures and a punctured lung in the impact, says he has no memory of just before and for about an hour after the accident, which is affecting him psychologically as he tries to piece together what happened.
“It’s a strange feeling – I’m still not coming to terms with it because I don’t remember any of it. I was sort of conscious; I was talking to Loek and I took my helmet off because I had run out of oxygen and I was struggling to breathe.
“But I wasn’t getting myself out of the car. My body had gone into some sort of survival mode because of the amount of the injuries I’d sustained.
“Watching the video is like I’m watching something else. I keep waking up at night where my brain is trying to piece together what happened to my body – that frustration seems to be building more and more.”
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