Home modifications and some imported parts brought many class wins and overall places in 1961 and 1962 on the newly inaugurated Kyalami Racetrack.

(He had been racing Alfa GTVs since 1966 in the Onyx Production Car Series, additional events at the Kyalami venue.)

He had been persuaded to race the older ex John Love Cooper Climax against world champions in the 1968 South African Grand Prix.

The car to beat was the Ford Capri Perana V8 (a special SA vehicle made by Basil Green Motors).

He made a proposal to General Motors to market a vehicle similar to the Basil Green Ford Capri V8.

100 vehicles would have to be built by GM (SA), which van Rooyen convinced them to do, and were sold locally to make this car, dubbed Chev Can-am, race eligible.

[6] The SL5000 he was sharing with British Saloon Car Champion Gerry Marshall at Bathurst retired with a broken seat.

This required fabricating a space frame vehicle with fibre-glass panels to look like a Fiat 131, mated with a turbo charged 2.5 litre Ferrari v6 600 bhp power unit.

As well as the abovementioned sprint races, van Rooyen participated in the Annual Kyalami 9 hour endurance races and the Springbok 3 hour series enduros nearly every year, sharing drives with local drivers Arnold Chatz, Eddie Keizan, Dave Charlton, Chappie Wicks, George Santana, Brian Davies, Geoff Mortimer, Colin Burford, Antonio Prixinho, Peter Gough, and overseas owner/drivers Nanni Galli, Christine Becker, Tony Dean.

Engine performance was impressive, but van Rooyen was so disappointed with the handling that he phoned the SA factory boss for an OK to make alterations.

So, just 2 days before the race, the front suspension was removed, parts and brackets cut, welded, bent etc, then re-assembled - to the horror of the Japanese mechanics!