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As far as exciting-sounding jobs go, C.E.O. of an employment agency isn’t quite up there with movie star or astronaut. But Adrian Cenni’s double life more than makes up for his less-than-thrilling job title.

On normal days, the tall, soft-spoken South African native co-runs Atrium Staffing, which serves Fortune 500 clients out of offices in Manhattan, Boston, and New Jersey. On weekends, the 33-year-old competes in professional off-road truck races, which are televised on NBC and the Speed channel.

The events are different from monster-truck competitions, in which vehicles with massively oversized tires and suspension systems race over (and crush) obstacles, including other cars. The handmade trucks Cenni drives resemble regular pickups and are rigged with enormous 800-horsepower engines and ultra-heavy-duty suspension systems. He races competitors on rough dirt tracks with jumps that launch trucks into the sky; drivers try to make it to the finish without crashing or flipping.

“There’s nothing like it. You’re flying in the air,” Cenni says. “I’ve flown forward 200 feet without touching the ground.”

Cenni used to race cars, participating in the Barber Dodge Series of races in 1998, but left the sport for truck racing in 1999 after watching a competition on television. Now, with a yearly budget of $1.2 million and a full-time crew of eight, Cenni races primarily in California and the Midwest, exposing himself to hazards that far exceed even the most vicious office politics or intense client demands.

“I have a tough time getting life insurance,” he says. “I’ve had injuries, mostly concussions from wrecks. I had one oil burn last year on my ankles; hot oil got on a patch of exposed leg and just took the skin right off. Other than that, I have had several wrecks and trips to the hospital, getting M.R.I.’s and such. I’ve got no short-term memory, but other than that, I’m great.”

Cenni doesn’t just punish his body and his trucks; he’s hard on his personal cars as well. At his home in St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands, he drives a Ford Escape, which he calls “the closest thing to a disposable car on the market.” It’s simple enough for local mechanics to handle, and if it slides into another car on a wet, muddy hill—well, no catastrophe.

At his house in South Hampton, on Long Island, Cenni keeps a Porsche Cayenne Turbo. “The Cayenne was the best of the bunch I tested for road holding, braking, and customizability,” he says.

And at home in New York City, “my 2000 Mercedes ML430 is the one I use to mix it up with the taxis,” he says. “In the city, it’s a fight for space, and if you have a very nice car, you’re at a severe disadvantage.”

Cenni also owns a 2006 Saxon Crown motorcycle “for fun.”

Cenni’s habit of buying cars and racing trucks may cost him millions, but he didn’t start out with deep pockets. The son of a South African shoe-designer father and homemaker mother, Cenni emigrated to the U.S.A. in 1985. Ten years later, he co-founded Atrium Staffing, starting with little money and just three employees. “We got loans from family and friends, a little bit here and a little bit there,” he says. “The market was forgiving in 1995, so it allowed us time to figure out what we were doing. We started placing people in jobs, and then we grew and added other divisions.”

The early 2000s weren’t as easy. Many of Atrium’s clients were located in downtown Manhattan, and the September 11 attacks led to a huge drop-off in business. The next two years were a struggle, and it wasn’t until 2004 that the market began to pick up. “It’s not booming, he says. “But it’s normal.”

Normal, of course, is a relative term. Atrium is now a $65 million company and is growing by about 40 percent a year, Cenni says. It has 1,600 workers in the field and 75 full-time staffers.

Next, Cenni is aiming to put a new spin on driving. “I want to be the first person to drive upside down through a 360-degree loop-to-loop,” he says. “We’re working on engineering it now with guys who build roller coasters. It’s one thing to race a car or truck, but if you can picture yourself driving straight up into the air at 100 miles per hour and coming out the other side, then you separate the men from the boys.”