Sport: Auto Racing
Born: April 30, 1893
Died: December 12, 1928
Town: East Orange, New Jersey
Norman Batten was born April 30, 1893 in East Orange, NJ, and grew up in Brooklyn. Norm was fascinated by automobiles, which seemed to be taking leaps and bounds in terms of speed and engineering every year when he was a boy. As soon as he could afford it, he fixed up an old car and began entering dirt-track races in the region, with moderate success. In 1918, Norm married Marian Calvin, a registered nurse. In the ensuing years, he would occasionally enter his cars in races under his wife’s name.
In 1925, fellow New Jerseyan Pete DePaolo invited him to work in his pit crew at the Indianapolis 500. DePaolo developed blisters during the race and, while he was having his hands bandaged, Norm took the wheel of his Duesenberg Special for 21 laps. He drifted from first place back to fifth but, after DePaolo hopped back into the driver’s seat, he roared back into first place and took the checkered flag with an average speed of 101 mph. The following year, Norm entered a powerful Miller at The Brickyard and was among the leaders most of the race, finishing seventh, to earn Rookie of the Year honors. He is still the only driver to win the 500 before being named the top first-timer.
Norm became one of the top drivers on the board and dirt circuits after his Indy triumphs. Among his victories in 1926 was the highly competitive 60-mile board-track race in Atlantic City.
In 1927, Norm had another unforgettable day at the Indianapolis 500 when his Miller-powered Fengler burst into flames on the 24th lap. Rather than abandoning the car on the oval, where an explosion might have injured pit workers and spectators, he remained behind the wheel and, while standing up, steered it to a clear spot on the strait before jumping out with severe burns. A photos of Norm’s heroic deed (left) made newspapers around the world and, while still recovering in the hospital, he received a Carnegie Medal, presented by his fellow drivers. It took him nearly a year to recuperate.
Norm repaired his vehicle in time for the 1928 Indy 500 and finished 5th. He did so despite an oil leak that burned his right foot and leg throughout the race. Later in the season, he was hospitalized with burns after an accident at Rockingham. That summer, Norm was hired by Studebaker to pilot one of its racers in an endurance event at Atlantic City. After he pulled into the pits and handed the car over to another driver, it erupted into flames, scorching a portion of the wooden track. This time, Norm escaped the flames unscathed.
At the end of the 1928 racing season, Norm thought it would be fun and profitable to race in South America during the winter. He and driving partner Earl Devore loaded a supercharged Miller onto the English steamer Vestris in Hoboken and sailed for Argentina, along with Marian and Devore’s wife and son. This was no luxury liner—the boat was overloaded, slow and had definitely seen better days. But the price and timing were right, so off they went.
On the second day of the journey, the Vestris began taking on water about 200 miles off the coast of North Carolina during a storm and sank during the night. Norm and Earl joined their families on a lifeboat that was continuously swamped by the high seas. The two men rowed and bailed to the point of exhaustion, but could not keep the vessel afloat and everyone went in the water, some with lifejackets, others without. Because the ship had been badly listing, the lifeboats on one side were unable to launch. At least three lifeboats, filled with passengers, were sucked under when the ship went down.
Of the 129 passengers and 199 crewmen that left Hoboken, 60 passengers and 154 crew survived the night, with more than 100 perishing. The death toll would have been much worse were it not for the fact that the steamer was in the Gulf stream, making the water temperature survivable. According to Marian Batten, Norm was holding his own when he spotted a woman going under some distance away. In his attempt to keep her afloat, he drowned. Marian clung to his lifeless body for hours. Earl Devore did not make it, either.
In 1929, Wes Crawford entered the Indy 500 in a car he dubbed the Marian Batten Special and finished in 15th place. Devore’s son, Billy, one of the Vestris survivors, went on to become an accomplished racecar driver himself.