A 1938 Ford Tudor Stockcar, Ex Niel 'Soapy' Castles. for sale by Coys Auction in Association with Historic Motorsport International 2017
Neil "Soapy" Castles was born 1st October 1934 in Charlotte, NC. Castles competed in the Grand National and Winston Cup ranks for 19 years before retiring from the sport in l976. He was nicknamed "Soapy" from his boyhood competition in soap-box derbies. A true ‘Redneck’, it was said that if you wanted somebody whacked, “Soapy” would do it for $300, and if you wanted flowers, it was $5 more. His NASCAR Grand National Division debut came on 20th June 1957 on the half-mile Columbia Speedway dirt track, driving Bill Champion’s No: 5 Ford. Castles was to start 17th and survive the race to finish 18th – and unharmed. He returned at Darlington Raceway, driving his own No: 68 Ford in which he was to make a further three appearances for a total of five professional major league races that year. Throughout the ’60s "Soapy" was highly competitive, spending four seasons in Buck Baker's cars and finishing eighth in the point standings in 1965 and ninth in the final standings in 1966. Other than those years, Castles fielded his own cars and was considered one of the leading "independents" -those without a factory-backed program. He was eighth in the standings in his own cars in l967 and then 12th in 1968. His best seasons came in 1969 and 1970 when he was fourth and fifth in the final point standings. During his long career he made 498 starts and although he never scored a victory, he had 51 top-five finishes and 178 top-10 placings. He also performed stunt driver duties in the Warner Brothers film "Greased Lightning" alongside Wendell Scott. Proudly wearing the later Castles No: 06, the 1938 Ford Tudor ‘Sportsman’ stock car offered today comes from the now defunct Rod Long Museum of NASCAR. Restored several years ago at a cost of over $30,000, this original warhorse was prepared especially for Neil “Soapy” Castles to demonstrate at NASCAR events. A high specification ‘Sportsman’ class racer – it features period Edelbrock aluminium race heads on its flathead V-8 engine, fuelled
Size: 5616px × 3744px
Location: ExCel, London, United Kingdom
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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