The Nissan GT-R of the Advan Kondo GT-R team came through with an impressive win in last Sunday’s Autobacs Super GT season opener held in Suzuka, Japan.

Team Advan Kondo’s car charged up through the pack from 10th position on the starting grid in the rough early going that saw several cars crash or run off the course. Drivers Joao Paulo Lima de Oliveira and Hironobu Yasuda came through for the team with an impressive come-from-behind victory.

Just before the start of the race, a drizzle of rain began to fall, making the track very slippery. That resulted in a series of spin-outs and crashes from the first lap.

The pole-sitting Weider onboard an HSV-010 was among the cars that ran off the track, dropping it to 12th position. The following round, there was another big crash between two of the Honda HSV-010 GT cars that added to the chaos on track.

Through all the confusion, de Oliveira moved up steadily from 10th position on the starting grid to eventually take the lead on lap 25. After that, the Kondo team took the very bold strategy of foregoing any tire changes at their routine pit stop to save time and open up an even bigger lead over the pack.

The GT300 class victory went to the pole-sitting M7 Mutiara Motors AMEMIYA SGC7 driven by Nobuteru Taniguchi and Ryo Orime.