Marty Kaufman: 1939-2022

News of the passing of IMSA’s beloved Race Director and senior official Marty Kaufman reached us yesterday, Marty passing away surrounded by his loved ones on Thursday after a long and valiant battle with ill-health. Marty had friends across the generations and across the world thanks to his motorsport exploits and reputation, and those friends […]

News of the passing of IMSA’s beloved Race Director and senior official Marty Kaufman reached us yesterday, Marty passing away surrounded by his loved ones on Thursday after a long and valiant battle with ill-health.

Marty had friends across the generations and across the world thanks to his motorsport exploits and reputation, and those friends have been fullsome in their praise in memory of a keystone figure in the structure of modern endurance racing.

Marty was originally from Fresno, California, was a longtime track official, leading the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) in Northern California before the call came to serve as race director in one of IMSA’s most celebrated – eras 1986-96 – overseeing the glory days of the IMSA GTP show and serving further in senior positions until his retirement in 2010.

“We all agreed he was the right guy and it turned out that he was,” said Mark Raffauf, IMSA’s senior director of competition who preceded Kaufman in the race director role and played a part in hiring Kaufman to succeed him.

“He did a great job. He had the highest integrity, and was straightforward and calm.

“Throughout that 10 years, we had a few controversies but not due to his decisions,” Raffauf continued. “Marty did a great job, and I guess the best compliment you can give an official of any sport at the highest level is that, even the people who may not have agreed with the decisions he made would come back after the fact and say he was fair. Marty Kaufman was a very fair guy and he fit the mold in his own way, with his own personality.

“He knew what the ‘right thing’ was to do, which wasn’t always what you should do or what the rules said you should do. He understood the philosophy of doing the right thing and that right thing would be related to fairness, in my mind.”

Tommy Kendall, a fellow Californian, was among those who competed under Kaufman’s leadership. Kendall also stressed the fairness competitors expected and received with Kaufman at the helm.

“Marty was a total pro,” said Kendall, the former SCCA and IMSA star. “He did such a good job managing all of the competing interests in the series in such a way that he never became the story, something that is far easier said than done.

“Furthermore, he cared deeply about everyone involved, which can make doing his job near impossible, as caring too much can be an Achilles heel in making tough but fair calls.’’

IMSA President John Doonan first met Kaufman when Doonan was an executive with Mazda charged with bringing the marque back into the sport. As with others who so fondly recalled Kaufman’s contributions, Doonan said, “He was a ‘teacher.’

“There are so many people in the last 12 hours – when word of his passing came out – who have mentioned, ‘I learned so much from that guy!’” Doonan continued. “And I think that’s not only a tribute to Marty but a reminder to all of us who are still in the sport, that we have a duty to educate and teach not only our current participants but our next generation of participants about how we do what we do and why we do it that way.

“That’s really what means the most to me about him. And I hope we can carry on in the same manner he did.”

This writer remembers Marty as one of a number of senior officials in the emerging powerhouse of the ALMS in my early years covering the sport that were kind and generous in their support for an enquiring mind significantly less well-versed in the intricacies of the sport than they were. He will forever be fondly remembered here for his good-nature and kindness.

You can read further tributes to Marty in Marshall Pruett’s obituary over on Racer.com.

Our thoughts and prayers are with his beloved wife, Jan, his family and his huge number of friends and colleagues throughout the sport and beyond.