With the horrific incident at the recent China GT round at Shanghai still very raw, this weekend’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship weekend is set to be an emotional occasion for several members of the paddock close to Ollie Millroy, who is still in hospital in China recovering from his injuries.
One of them is Paul Miller Racing’s Neil Verhagen, locked in a GTD Pro title battle with his teammate Connor De Phillippi and leading the standings by 23 points over Nicky Catsburg and Tommy Milner from Corvette Racing.
Creating a more comfortable margin for the season finale is the task at hand. But his involvement in the multi-car incident that left Millroy trapped inside a burning Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo, with broken ribs, a broken collarbone, hand and finger, and a bruised lung, will undoubtedly be on his mind.
Reflecting on the incident, he admitted to reporters that the circumstances surrounding Millroy’s crash were “incredibly scary,” but also stressed the importance of the fact that Millroy is expected to make a full recovery.
And for Loek Hartog, who pulled Millroy from the wreckage, Verhagen offered praise and admiration.
“Loek, who, in the end, made a heroic move to make sure that Ollie was able to step out of that car and get back to his family, was great to see,” he said. “I think without him, the outcome would have been extremely different.
“Obviously, from my side of the situation, you know, I’m okay, for sure. I was definitely sore, and it was not pleasant. But yeah, fortunately was able to walk away from that one.”
Hartog’s actions in the aftermath of the crash have been widely noted within the racing community and far beyond. For Verhagen, his reaction to the incident unfolding in front of him underlined two key fundamentals about motorsport: a shared responsibility between competitors to act when something goes badly wrong, and for the sport to ensure the safety of everyone trackside continues to remain a priority.
“At the end of the day, I think that should be the number one motivation is to make sure that everyone feels safe and that the response is going be treated appropriately,” he added.
“I think while racing in IMSA, it’s never even a question mark. You know if there’s an incident that’s going to happen, you know it’s going to be handled appropriately. I think the AMR Safety Team is one of the best in the world, and I think them travelling to every race event is super beneficial.
“Maybe some other series can learn from that as well? It’s important to have the same people week in and week out, who really understand not only how to attend to the driver, but also how to handle a situation when the worst case happens.”
In GTD, it’s a similarly emotional situation, with the Inception Racing team that Millroy drives for in the Michelin Endurance Cup races, in the midst of a battle to win the Bob Akin Award for Bronze-graded driver Brendan Iribe.
This award, presented annually to the best amateur driver in the class, comes with a coveted invitation to enter the 24 Hours of Le Mans. So, in sporting terms, 12 months after the team’s memorable class victory at Indianapolis when it was still an Endurance Cup round, the focus is on repeating their performance at ‘The Brickyard’ and securing the award in two weeks at Road Atlanta.
But looking beyond Sunday’s race and Petit Le Mans, driver Frederick Schandorff made the point that the crash should be used as an opportunity for the sport to come together and make further progress in driver safety and incident response.
“I just hope that the whole motorsport community can use this to do something good and use this for all of us drivers to probably be more aware of everything, and also to be aware in this situation, but also, of course, probably more for other championships,” he explained.
“After this, you really appreciate the whole AMR Safety Team. You know how good and how quick their response is; it’s something that probably personally I haven’t really thought about myself that much, but for sure after what happened, you really appreciate the whole crew behind that, and also that they’re so professional about what they’re doing, and they are there so quickly. That definitely makes me more relaxed going into another race weekend, seeing what happened with Ollie.
“It was just super scary for everyone, but especially for me, it was personally the first time a really bad incident happened to one of my super close friends as well as a teammate.
“I really hope that Ollie is going to recover super well. He’s making good progress, but it’s going to take some time. He’s not able to fly for the next three weeks, probably because of his lung still. So, I wish him a speedy recovery.”
Images © Michael L. Levitt / IMSA / Top Speed
