Mike Kaufman likes to live in the fast lane. By day he negotiates commercial leases for the Kaufman Organization — and by night he drag races, competing across the country in states from New Hampshire to North Carolina in this year alone. He can accelerate from 0 to 200 miles per hour in less than seven seconds on a quarter-mile track.
Most recently, the amateur speedster won the coveted Iron Man trophy in his racing class, claiming first place in the Torco Racing Fuels President’s Cup Nationals in Budds Creek, Md., on September 30.
He was also a runner-up in two national events this year.
“Some people race their whole life just to get that,” said the 35-year-old managing director, who is not related to the Kaufman family that owns the company. “The adrenaline rush is unbelievable.”
Kaufman said his real estate career affords him the time and money to race, and gives him the “same adrenaline rush” as racing. “Every day is new,” he continued. “It’s always a work in progress — my career and so is my racing.”
Kaufman, who lives in Woodcliff Lake, N.J., races in a custom-made 1967 Corvette. He owns five other vehicles — two sports cars, an Acura and two trucks (one to tow the race car trailer). Yet he takes the train to work.
“I’m a suit-and-tie guy in the day and a wrench- screwdriver-and-jeans guy at night,” Kaufman said. “It’s kind of like the Superman outfit underneath the Clark Kent camouflage.”
The Hillsdale, N.J., native has spent just over half his life in racing, including working in a race car shop after school in his teenage years, racing snowmobiles and dirt bikes and drag racing against friends in high school, and working on the crew of a professional drag racing team after graduating from Pennsylvania State University.
“I grew up around it. My dad used to do it,” Kaufman said. Fred, Kaufman’s 70-year-old father, stopped racing when Michael and his older brother Erik, 37, were born.
Like Michael, Fred was in the real estate business. He retired from a job at Helmsley-Spear working as chief engineer and director of project management for the Empire State Building.
Kaufman’s crew is made up of Erik, who builds and designs race engines for a living, and the brothers’ uncle, Lou Santora.
Race car driving is not a cheap hobby.
“It’s a six-figure hobby with the ability, if you’re good enough, to pay for itself,” he said.
His racing career has benefited his work: During the summer he invited one of his clients, a racing enthusiast, to serve as an honorary crew member during one of Kaufman’s races at Raceway Park, in Englishtown, N.J. That helped them forge a stronger bond, Kaufman said. “Both are on my mind 24-7.”
If he loves them both, which takes precedence — closing million-dollar deals or riding full throttle?
“Work comes first,” he said, “always.”