South African 'Can-Am' 1986
Struggling under the International sanctions imposed on its apartheid government, the South African economy came close to collapse in late 1985, and many of the F2 cars that still had significant financial value were exported. Bernard Tilanus, Keith Horwood and others devised a new series that combined the remaining single-seaters with sports cars under the "Can-Am" name. The regulations were not well drawn up and an immediate row began. Fields collapsed and races at Welkom and Killarney were cancelled.
Wayne Taylor teamed up with Michael Bryan to hire the two Pretoria Brick Ralt RT4s that had been raced by Bernard Tilanus and Braam Smith in 1984 and 1985, thus reuniting Taylor with the car he had raced in 1982 and 1983. Tilanus also went back to an older car, the March 78B he had raced in mid-1982. Taylor started the season with two straight wins, but Tilanus won at Goldfields in September and again at Kyalami in October to take a narrow points lead into the final round. With Taylor having to start from the back of the grid after missing practice, Tilanus took pole position 3.6 seconds faster than anyone else and stormed off into a huge lead, but on lap six inexplicably went too wide and crashed. Taylor took a comfortable victory and sealed the championship.
The sports car class comprised a couple of very old Chevrons and a handful of Tigas built locally under license. Despite the weight penalty placed in Taylor's Ralt, none of the sports cars proved to be competitive. This was the end of the Formula Atlantic/Formula 2 series and the last time the South African Drivers Champion title was awarded. The sports cars carried on, together with a few sports-bodied single-seaters, but the crowds' attention turned to Formula Ford and the Wesbank modified touring cars.
The races
22 Mar 1986 > Killarney
22 Mar 1986 > Killarney
10 May 1986 > Kyalami
12 Jul 1986 > Kyalami
09 Aug 1986 > Yellow Pages Kyalami Challenge Series Race
14 Sep 1986 > Welkom
04 Oct 1986 > Kyalami
01 Nov 1986 > Kyalami
South African Drivers Championship events shown in bold
1986 South African Drivers Championship table
| 1 | Wayne Taylor | Ralt RT4/82 - Mazda 12A | 78 pts | |
| 2 | Bernard Tilanus | March 78B - Mazda 12A | 66 pts | |
| 3= | Giorgio Cavalieri | (Can-Am) Chevron B21/B31 - Mazda 12A | 54 pts | |
| 3= | Dorino Treccani | (Can-Am) Trepal Special - Mazda 12A | 54 pts | |
| 5 | Gordon Hatch | (Can-Am) Tiga SC85 - Mazda 12A | 32 pts | |
| 6= | Bill Maloney | Lant RR84 - Mazda 12A | 30 pts | |
| 6= | Ivano Moavero | March 77B - Mazda 12A | 30 pts | |
| 6= | Mike Rudolph | Chevron B34 - Mazda 12A | 30 pts | |
| 9 | Fred Goddard | (Can-Am) Chevron B31 - Mazda 12A | 26 pts | |
| 10 | Allan Dunlop | Ralt RT4/83 - Mazda 12A | 22 pts |
The two classes, single seaters and spots cars, were awared points entirely separately. There was also a Kyalami Challenge series, sponsored by Yellow Pages, which included the 9 August race.