Historic Tin Indian Drag Racing Pontiacs - Tin Indian

Driver: Arlen Vanke
On Racing with Knafel: "I started out racing a '62 Super Duty Catalina for Knafel, along with the Black Whirlwind '62 Catalina convertible. For 1963, I raced an SD Catalina and the Papoose 1 Tempest wagon. I left in '63 and Knafel Pontiac sponsored Arnie Beswick's 'Grocery Getter.' I didn't like the transaxle in those cars. The development was halted by the racing ban so they never really ironed out the bugs. I thought that a conventional drivetrain would be better, so I ordered a '63 326 Tempest coupe and I converted it to a racecar with a 421 SD and Big-Car rearend. Bill Klinger took care of me on parts like the aluminum front end. That was the 'Running Bear' that Tim Benko now has. I came back into Knafel and raced part of '66 with the 'Tin Indian' GTO that Merle Green now has. I raced that '66 GTO at the NASCAR Winternationals at Daytona. It came down to Bill Abraham in my '63 Plymouth wagon and me in the GTO and I took the win.

"Then in 1970, out of the blue, Bill Knafel called me and said, 'I've got a problem that I hope you can help me with. There's a guy with a '66 Dart that is running in AHRA and holds the national record. He called us out for a best-of-three match race at a Dragway 42 national event and he can probably dust us. Can you help?' I came up with the idea of running in three classes with the Judge: 2-barrel, 4-barrel and Tri-Power. With Sonny Tanner driving, we set national records in all three classes and, strangely enough, we never heard from that Dodge Dart guy anymore!

"I have to give Bill Knafel credit for doing this at a time where there was little in the way of sponsorship money out there. I'm as hard-headed as they come and we didn't always see eye-to-eye on things (laughs), but he made it possible for me to do things that I could never have done myself."

On the Reunion in Norwalk: "To have three of my old cars in one place, well, who could ask for anything else? I was tickled pink. Merle really stepped up; he was the guy who made the reunion happen."

Driver: Doc Dixon
On Racing with Knafel: "I raced with Knafel Pontiac from 1966 to 1968. The team first noticed me back in '63 at Dragway 42, when I was racing a Z-11 Chevy and I beat Arlen in his '63 Tempest. [The Z-11 was in a quicker class.] After Arlen left in '66, I came on board.

"It was a good deal racing with them. Al Pierce from Pontiac put on a 'Beat the Champ' promotion with Quaker State and we took two cars, and the tracks would choose a local driver to compete. It was a lot of travel but a lot of fun. Knafel had as good a deal as there was out there. He was pretty shrewd and got Hurst, Firestone and Quaker State involved as sponsors-he was ahead of his time in that respect.

"I was racing mostly Mopars before joining up with Knafel Pontiac and I went back to them after that. In 1987, I returned to Pontiac running for the Rod Shop in a Firebird and took five class wins. I moved on to circle track and have only been out of it for a few years."

On Moving on to New Racecars: "I never was really emotional about the cars-we sold them for the next one. We never really looked back. That being said, I really admire what Merle has done with his '66 GTO."

On the Reunion in Norwalk: "I had a really great time. It was nice to see the old stuff again-I really respect what they do to restore the cars. It's a tough job to research everything to get them right."

Driver: Norm "Sonny" Tanner
On the Reunion: "Even though I wasn't able to be there for the entire weekend, I had a great time. Seeing the cars and the drivers after all these years was a thrill and boy, were there a lot of people!"

Conclusion
Merle Green intends to continue his Knafel Pontiac reunion with plans to bring it back to the Ames Performance Pontiac Nationals in the future. With any luck, more cars and personalities from the era will be appearing. We hope the restoration of a Knafel '62 421 SD Catalina will be completed in time for this year's show season. Ol' Bill would definitely be proud...