South African racer Basil van Rooyen was a true talent behind the wheel of any car he was able to get down in Africa. His career started, like many, on motorcycles at age 18 in 1957. He soon moved on to racing cars around the few South African circuits.
His first successes were in a Ford Anglia 105E, at the then newly opened Kyalami circuit in 1961/62. He moved on to a Ford Cortina 1200 shortly after. His reputation as a talented driver got him a deal with Ford SA, being given one of two imported Lotus Cortina's in 1964 (his Lotus Cortina is part of the TCL Cortina skinpack).
Having been the managing director of Superformance, he was able to modify and improve his Lotus Cortina to a level where he was able to win the SA Saloon Car Championship in 1965. The rising level of saloon car racing popularity in SA motivated the local Ford importer to bring in a Ford Mustang for Basil, in which he won both 1966 and 1967's SA Saloon car championship - undefeated.
Basil van Rooyen went on to race for another decade with plenty more victories, passing away on September 14th 2023 at the age of 84.
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Special thanks to Andrevr on Discord for helping with finding photos of the car and telling me the story behind SA's racing scene back then!
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