Slo Mo Shun

Since the start of the 20th century, Detroit has been the hub of the motorized world. It was only natural that the powerful motors built in Detroit's huge factories eventually found their way into high-speed boats and that organized racing soon followed. Starting in 1916, Detroit became the center of powerboat racing. Names like Gar Wood, Chris Smith, and Horace Dodge dominated the sports pages of the 1920s and 1930s. Following World War II, racing in Detroit entered its golden era. Led by local businessmen like Jack Schafer, Joe Schoenith, and George Simon, hydroplane racing captured the heart of the community in a way that has never been equaled.

"Two men from Seattle had the same ambition. They wanted the fastest boat in the world. One of them loved to play with design ideas that would make boats go faster. He had the idea. The other was a successful auto dealer who loved speed and was a boat racer. He had the money. Then came a third--a man who had the mechanical genius to build things that worked. He applied the money and used the idea to build a race boat that not only set the world's straightaway speed record but also went to Detroit, easily won the Gold Cup--the biggest boat race in the world--and brought the prestigious event to Seattle. SLO-MO-SHUN is the story of those three men: Ted Jones, Stan Sayres, and Anchor Jensen--men who stunned the world of unlimited hydroplane racing in 1950 and brought the world's fastest boats to the Pacific Northwest. Because of them, the sport became the biggest thing in town."--Amazon.com.

Hydroplane racing burst onto the Seattle scene in 1950, and local sports fans embraced it with a passion that is hard to imagine. Throughout the early 1950s, thousands of fans flocked to Lake Washington to watch classic races between Seattle's Slo-mo-shun boats and a fleet of East Coast challengers. For over 40 years, hydroplane racing was synonymous with summertime in Seattle. During its golden age, when "hydro fever" was at its height, drivers like Bill Muncey, Ron Musson, and Mira Slovak were sports heroes on par with today's Ken Griffey Jr. or Ichiro. Seattle became the "hydro" capital of the nation.

Mira Slovak was born in Czechoslovakia and endured both the Nazi occupation and the brutal Russian liberation. He joined the Czech Air force, rising to Captain by the age of 21. When he could no longer tolerate life under the Communists, he hijacked an airliner and flew across the Iron Curtain to freedom. He went to work for the CIA and was eventually sent to the US and given a job as Bill Boeing, Jr's personal pilot. When Boeing began racing Hydroplanes in the late 1950s, Mira was his driver. During his ten year career as a hydroplane driver, he won many races and two national championships. He met Presidents and dated movie starlets. After a serious hydroplane accident, Slovak switched to airplanes where he won another national championship. When he retired from racing he became a stunt pilot and public speaker and talked about the value of freedom and how we should value it above everything else. He outlasted Communism and when it collapsed in 1990 he returned to his home, only to realize that his true home was, and always would, be the United States.