COEUR d'ALENE - Hall of Fame unlimited hydroplane driver and 1966 Diamond Cup winner Miroslav "Mira" Slovak died Monday at his home in Fallbrook, Calif. He was 84.

According to the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum in Kent, Wash., Slovak was next to his longtime partner, Ingrid Bondi, when he succumbed to stomach cancer.

Slovak, known as "The Fighting Czech," was a two-time American Power Boat Association Unlimited Hydroplane National Champion, in 1958 with "Miss Bardahl" and in 1966 with "Tahoe Miss."

He was the 1966 Gold Cup winner with "Tahoe Miss" and won a total of 12 races during his 10-year career in the unlimited ranks.

In the 1963 Diamond Cup, Slovak's hydroplane "Miss Exide" exploded during the competition. The dramatic accident sliced open the right side of his face from ear to jaw, and he lost 20 teeth.

"When I woke up in the hospital, I felt something under my chin, and the doctor said, 'Be quiet, I'm finishing.' He was sewing me up," Slovak told The Press in 2010.

"Mira Slovak was bigger-than-life to most of us race fans," said Stephen Shepperd, a Diamond Cup historian and Kellogg resident. "Always accessible, he took time to talk with each of us, to perhaps share a story from his storied career, or to give us an autograph."

He was born in Czechoslovakia, and became a Cold War hero after defecting while at the controls of a Czechoslovakian Airlines passenger plane in 1953. He flew the plane from Prague to Frankfurt, West Germany, and was granted asylum.

He became a citizen with the help of Washington Sens. Henry Jackson and Warren Magnuson, Shepperd said.

Slovak retired from Continental Airlines, piloting Boeing 747s, Shepperd said.

He started his American flying career as the personal pilot of Seattle airplane builder Bill Boeing Jr., Shepperd said. He became the driver of Boeing's unlimited hydroplane, "Miss Wahoo."

Slovak was also a stunt pilot, and flew solo across the Atlantic Ocean, Shepperd said.

"The details of his life reflect his varied interests, and if his many accomplishments were not true, they would be beyond belief in many cases," Shepperd said Wednesday. "He was truly a living, breathing action-movie hero."

Shepperd authored "Hydromania: A History of the Diamond Cup."

"We were very fortunate to have Mira Slovak attend the vintage hydroplane exhibition in 2010 that was hosted by the Museum of North Idaho," said Doug Miller, president of Diamond Cup.

When Slovak was here, Miller recalled, he spent several minutes with the hydroplane memorial in Coeur d'Alene.

"I will always remember what he said when he walked away from the memorial," Miller said. "'Rest in peace, my friends.'"

Before his death, Slovak requested that no service be held and that his ashes be scattered over the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean.