[oldskool]

The OP mentioned his parent's Pontiacs.

'62 was a big year for Pontiac racing, drag & circle track. I call the years '57-'63 Pontiac's "Glory Years".

The M/T '62 Tempest also won A/FX at the Winter Nats that year, & a '63 Tempest won it in '63.

Carol Cox had also won S/SA at the '62 Winter Nats.

I suppose the Indy '62 win was the only Pontiac powered Top dragster win ever, at Indy. No Nitro dragsters were run that year @ Indy. I've read where Don Garlits said he built a dragster that year especially to run @ Indy, using a 413 Mopar engine, as requested by Mopar. He lost the final round, to the M/T Pontiac powered dragster, driven by Jack Chrisman.

At Indy '63, Jim Wangers won the B/FX class, in an All-Pontiac final.

"...Arlen Vanke's Tin Indian and a few other..."

Bill Abraham & Arlen Vanke both ran several Pontiacs & drove some of Knafel Pontiacs "Tin Indian" cars.

Those 421SD engines did a lot of winning back in the early '60's. The 389SD engines also got their share of wins. Several '58 Pontiacs did quite good, for several years after that, getting class & event wins, setting records, & winning div points championships.

Like many other older threads on car forums, many of the pics that were posted are no longer visible. So, I'll add a few pics of Pontiacs that were @ Indy '62, plus others, back in that time period.