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All News Posts Tagged 'Mira Slovak' (4)

Mira Slovak - "The Flying Czech"

By Fred Farley - H1 Unlimited Historian

Jack Regas with Mira Slovak in 1960. Photo provided by Mark Douty.

Beyond doubt, one of the most colorful characters ever to jockey an Unlimited hydroplane was Mira Slovak, "The Flying Czech," who was to boat racing what Errol Flynn was to the movies.

During an…

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Added by Hydroplane Museum on June 18, 2014 at 8:40pm — No Comments

Seattle's Deadly Farce

Two days of hydro racing end with four hospital cases, three retirements and no real winner.

By Emmett Watson

Reprinted from Sports Illustrated, August 22, 1960

The sport of hydroplaning, in which the sight of burning boats, crippled drivers and squabbling officials has become commonplace, degenerated into a grisly parody of itself at the Seafair Trophy races in Seattle last week. The regatta produced a winner (of sorts) in Miss Thriftway, driven…

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Added by Hydroplane Museum on September 20, 2011 at 5:52pm — 1 Comment

‘I Will Drive Like I Drive’

In a racing boat Mira Slovak is as brash as he was when he fled the Reds in a stolen plane.

By Emmett Watson

Reprinted from Sports Illustrated, August 8, 1960

In the seven years since he stole a Czechoslovak airliner loaded with furiously reluctant passengers and treetopped his way to freedom, 30-year-old Miroslav Slovak has pursued such a variety of careers and diversions that he has sometimes seemed headed several ways at once. This week…

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Added by Hydroplane Museum on November 3, 2010 at 3:30pm — No Comments

History of Miss Wahoo

Bill Boeing's Miss Wahoo appeared in two races in 1956. She took fifth at the Seattle Seafair Trophy Race. Later in the year, she competed in the Sahara Cup in Las Vegas, where she took sixth out of eleven hulls. The Miss Wahoo was a beautiful mahogany-decked craft with deep red trim and white lettering. She had Allison power and was driven by Mira Slovak, who up to then had never even seen a race boat, much less driven one! But Slovak was a talented pilot who had fled the Iron Curtain in a…

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Added by Hydroplane Museum on October 29, 2010 at 3:00pm — No Comments

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