AMC racing legend loses battle with cancer

Dave Kanners, who partnered with Richard Maskin in campaigning AMC Hornets on the Pro Stock tour in the 1970s, passed away on Friday, March 27, after a five-year battle with pancreatic cancer. Kanners died just days before celebrating his April 1st wedding anniversary with his wife Sue.

Maskin & Kanners took an AMC Hornet X Hatchback all the way to the 1976 NHRA World Finals where Kanners qualified No. 1 and ran well, recording low e.t. in the first three rounds. In the final run, Kanners lost to Wally Booth in the other factory AMC. Kanners outran Booth in the final, 8.76 to 8.78, but Booth’s quicker reaction time gave him the victory. In 2004, fans voted the race one of the NHRA’s top 20 moments.

In 2003, Kanners became one of the first eleven people to run a 26-mile marathon at the North Pole.