(Donated photo) Chris Lund, right, and his mother Wanda, who lives in Waynesville, pose for a recent picture.
(Donated photo)
Chris Lund, right, and his mother Wanda, who lives in Waynesville, pose for a recent picture.
Staff writer
NASCAR legend Tiny Lund’s championship ring returned to family after being lost at sea for 17 years
It sounds like something out of Ripley’s Believe it or Not. Or maybe even “The Twilight Zone.” But for Wanda Lund Early, it seemed like divine providence.
Our story begins in 1973, when NASCAR racer Dwayne “Tiny” Lund (so called because he stood six-foot-five and tipped the scales at 270 pounds) won the 1973 Grand National East Championship. This was before the days of sponsor-owned races and racetracks and before big money took stock car racing from small Southern tracks to an international phenomenon.
Lund got a trophy, but also a ring — diamond-encrusted, cast in white gold and heavy — on a par with the rings awarded to World Series winners.
Lund’s wife, Wanda, recalls that the couple’s son, Chris — who was 3 years old at the time — showed an early fascination with the ring. “If Chris was being fidgety, Tiny would pull that ring out and Chris would quiet right down,” she said.
Tiny Lund was killed during the Aug. 11, 1975, NASCAR race at Talladega, Ga. Wanda thought the ring had been buried with him but when that turned out not to be the case, she saved it and gave it to Chris on his 18th birthday. Chris had enrolled at Johnson-Wales University in their culinary program in Charleston, S.C., and about a week later he and some friends were enjoying a dinner cruise on a party barge in Charleston Harbor. Chris had been passing the ring around, showing it, and set it on the table when the meal was served. The ship hit a sudden swell, and the ring went over the side. Lost forever.
“There was no way to even think of getting it back,” Chris said. “I thought my mom was going to kill me when she found out. There are a lot of things that I have of my father’s — driver’s suits, trophies and photos — but nothing that you can have with you as a daily memento.”
The ring lay at the bottom of the Charleston Harbor for the next 17 years, just a faint memory. Then, in May 2005, Wanda received a phone call out of the blue. It was the director of the International Motor Sports Hall of Fame on the line. A beachcomber had found Lund’s ring washed up on the Battery.
“I never realized that storms can churn so much stuff up off the bottom, but I guess that’s why there are so many beachcombers out there, looking for stuff after storms,” Chris said.
The beachcomber — who prefers to remain anonymous — didn’t know what she had at the time. After 17 years in sand, salt water and silt, the ring was encrusted with marine growth.
“My understanding is that she found it and didn’t know what it was. She was going through some things she had collected from the beach, started cleaning it, and realized what it was,” Chris said.
Ironically, it was Tiny Lund’s racing accomplishments that helped bring the ring back home. It is engraved with his name as well as the NASCAR championship notation.
The woman who retrieved the ring from the shoreline saw the championship inscription and contacted the Motor Sports Hall of Fame, who in turn contacted Wanda.
“The called and said some lady had found the ring of Tiny Lund,” Wanda said. “I called her number but got an answering machine and left a message, describing the ring. I didn’t hear anything for two weeks. I kept thinking, ‘It can’t be my husband’s ring.’ Then she finally called back, saying she had been sick and that was why she hadn’t called sooner. She said, “I’m going to send it to you.’”
When the package arrived in the mail, Wanda hesitated. Here was something she had seen for nearly 20 years. “I was afraid to open it, and afraid not to open it, you know what I mean? But when I finally opened it, and saw what it was, I fell to my knees crying.”
A precious link to Tiny was in her hands again.
But Wanda didn’t immediately call Chris to tell him the astounding news. She decided, instead, to surprise him with it on his 35th birthday on June 8. Chris, who now works in marketing with the pricing department with AGCO Corp., manufacturers of agricultural equipment such as Massey Ferguson tractors, in Atlanta, Ga., came to Waynesville for a visit and the birthday celebration.
“I gave him the shirt, and I gave him the tie, and when I gave him the ring, it was lucky the coffee table was there. He just about fell over,” Wanda said. “To this day, it still amazes me.” “At first I thought it was a replica,” Chris added.
“The crazy thing is that person I was going to see that weekend — Ada Howell [director of admissions for Johnson-Wales] — was there the night we lost the ring. It’s uncanny.” Chris isn’t taking any chances on letting the ring escape again.
When asked how he safeguards it, he laughed, “I’m wearing it right now. My mom was pretty much emphatic about that. My dad was a big man, and I have pretty big hands, and it’s incredible that it fits so well.”
And Chris agrees that it is remarkable that Tiny’s ring found its way back home — not only because of the incredible odds of it being discovered in the first place, but that the good Samaritan beachcomber who picked it up didn’t try to profit from it herself.
“I guess there are still good people out there,” he says. “Today, with all the interest in NASCAR, it would have brought a pretty penny on eBay.”
And when asked if there was a moral to this remarkable story, Chris hesitated a moment. “Fate works things come back to you. No chapter in your life is ever closed.”