Why de Oliveira was left 'walking tightrope' at Okayama

SUPER GT veteran de Oliveira opened his GT300 class title defence with an eventful run to 10th place on board the #56 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 he shares with new team-mate Teppei Natori.

The arrival of rain in the early stages of the race shook up the order as just under half the field managed to switch to wet tyres before the pitlane closed due to a full-course yellow, with Natori unable to come in before as Kondo gave priority to its GT500 car in a crowded pitlane.

Natori then missed his cue to come in once the pits were reopened and dropped virtually to the back of the field after finally switching to wet Yokohamas on lap 19, but had managed to claw his way back inside the top 10 by the time he pitted on lap 39 to hand over to de Oliveira.

However, de Oliveira's stint was far from plain sailing as he had to survive with no ABS on the still-slippery track, and was only able to finally solve the issue by performing a power cycle during a subsequent FCY period.

"Coming out of the pits, we had an electronic issue," de Oliveira told Motorsport.com. "The ABS stopped working, so it was like walking on a tightrope.

"This GT3 car is so tricky to drive without the ABS, because that’s how we balance the brakes. Without it, it’s very easy to lock the front tyres. Even using 50 percent of the normal pressure you would use, you get a massive lock-up.

"For five or six laps, I was driving with no ABS and we had to do a reset. In fact, it happened in the last race at Motegi last year and it happened again, so it’s something we have to investigate because we lost a lot of time.

"I had to perform a reset, a ‘power cycle’, and the car almost completely stopped on track. We were under FCY at the time, but it allowed the #4 [Goodsmile Mercedes] to close right in and he overtook just as we restarted."

 

After the incident between the #9 Pacific Racing Mercedes and #88 JLOC Lamborghini that brought out the safety car on lap 48, de Oliveira ran 10th, one place ahead of the #244 Max Racing Toyota that eventually finished third.

The two-time GT300 champion explained how, in a crowded pitlane after the race resumed following the first of three red flags, the car shared by Kimiya Sato and Atsushi Miyake gained so much ground.

"At the final stop, we had the #4 car ahead blocking our path, and the #244 car was able to benefit from having the first pit box," recalled de Oliveira. "So while we were stuck there, they were already doing their pitstop.

"They came into the pits behind us and they managed to get out ahead of us, so when I saw that, I was like, ‘oh, man…’ It was just a lottery really."

The reshuffle put de Oliveira back outside of the points, but he and Natori were finally promoted to 10th when the #2 Inging Toyota shed its left-rear wheel, dropping out of eighth place in the process.

"I don’t remember ever having a race with three red flags, or going from dry to wet, back to dry and back to wet again!" said the Brazilian. "I can’t remember another race that was so crazy.

"We ended up 10th, so to score a single point was a small consolation after a really tough day."

Join Motorsport.tv to watch the full SUPER GT Okayama race on replay here.