Neil "Soapy" Castles: Memoir of a Life in NASCAR and the Movies

by Henry Neil "Soapy" Castles

Overview

Henry Neil "Soapy" Castles grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina, and became involved in its pioneering auto racing scene at an early age. Graduating from soapbox derby cars to midgets and sprints and finally to stock cars, he sometimes crashed, sometimes won, saw friends die horribly, and became a champion.

Eventually he left the racetrack for Hollywood where he became a stuntman working alongside such stars as Rory Calhoun, Elvis Presley, Kenny Rogers, Richard Pryor and Andy Griffith. In the 1990s, groundwater contamination at Castle's truck repair business from an Exxon oil storage facility cost him an eye and most of his lungs. His decade-long class action lawsuit won him millions in compensation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476676289
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Publication date:	02/06/2019
Pages:	204
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.41(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

The late Henry Neil “Soapy” Castles lived in Charlotte, North Carolina. Perry Allen Wood is an investigator for Wells Fargo Bank and a noted racing historian. He has written four other McFarland books on stock car racing, hosts a weekly radio show Start Your Engines, and lives in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments by Perry Allen Wood viii
Foreword by Deb Williams
Preface by Perry Allen Wood
One. A Beginning
Two. Behind the Wheel and on the Gas
Three. After Buddy
Four. Racing into the ’60s
Five. Elvis Is in the Building
Six. Inspections, Rescues, Wings and Protests
Seven. That Championship Feeling
Eight. Lights, Camera and Lots of Action
Nine. Taking on the Giant
Ten. Heading for the Checkered Flag
Eleven. Neil’s Children Reflect
Index

Editorial Reviews

Relates [the] story competently and reads easily...worthy addition to the race historian’s library”—SAH Journal

From the Publisher