De Oliveira to Miss Two Races Amid Brazil Clashes

Photo: Konishi Yuya

Joao Paulo de Oliveira has revealed he will miss two rounds of this year’s SUPER GT season due to clashes with a new program in Brazil’s Stock Car Pro Series.

De Oliveira has been a mainstay of SUPER GT since 2006 and has driven Nissan machinery for all but one of his 19 seasons in the Japanese championship, initially in the GT500 class until 2018 and then in GT300 since 2020.

However, the Brazilian has announced he is embarking on a new challenge this year in his native country’s top racing series with the Full Time Sports Toyota team.

De Oliveira will remain involved in SUPER GT driving Kondo Racing’s No. 56 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 together with Kohei Hirate, as announced by the marque in February, but will miss two of the first three races of the season due to clashes.

He will miss the Golden Week race at Fuji Speedway in May as well as the third round at Sepang in Malaysia the following month, which clash with the Interlagos and Velo Citta rounds of the Stock Car Pro Series schedule.

Speaking about the decision, de Oliveira admitted that a desire to test himself in a fresh environment, as well as disillusionment about not being offered a chance to return to Nissan’s GT500 roster, played a role in his decision.

“I love Japan and Japan will always be a part of me, but I needed to look for opportunities,” he said. “I believe I still have plenty to offer and am performing at a high level, but I’m afraid there is not much more room for growth in Japan.

“I raced in GT500 for 13 years and nine years in Super Formula, and although I have been happy racing in GT300 for the last five years, I want to keep challenging myself. That element has always been important to me.

“Sometimes I feel like my achievements in GT300 go unnoticed. When I was on pole for the final round at Suzuka and set a track record, it wasn’t even in the news.

“If I was a teenager coming up with the results I’ve had in the past five seasons, I am sure I would be promoted to GT500 in any given season. That sort of thing also motivated me to look for more challenges.”

De Oliveira has dipped his toe in categories outside of SUPER GT in recent years, contesting two rounds of the FIA World Endurance Championship for Vanwall in 2023 and making outings for Craft-Bamboo Racing in GT3 competition in Japan last year.

However, his campaign in Brazil will mark his first full season of racing outside of Japan since 2003, when he won the German Formula 3 title.

“I was pleasantly surprised when Kondo Racing asked me to do the six rounds which don’t clash with the Brazilian Stock Car calendar and I said yes,” added de Oliveira. “I was pleased they understood my reasons and to see how much they value me.”

The identity of de Oliveira’s replacement for the Fuji and Sepang races has not been announced, but Yu Kanamaru is expected to get the call-up to partner Hirate.

Kanamaru, who who races a GT-R NISMO GT3 in GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS for 5ZIGEN, was signed as the third driver for the No. 56 car in anticipation of de Oliveira being unavailable for the second and third rounds of the season.