The veteran racer from Margate, Florida had qualified for the IHRA Summit SuperSeries World Finals three times and finished runner-up three years ago. On Sunday night, Doty finally captured the ultimate championship in bracket racing at Holly Springs Motorsports with some great reaction times.

“Here we are the World Champion,” Doty said. “It’s a lot of luck. You’ve got the best of the best you’re racing. I was the track champion at Palm Beach multiple times, and the last two rounds, I was 17. I was .007 the first round, which got me the bye for second round although I didn’t use it since we had an even number of competitors.”

Doty qualified for the World Finals by winning the championship at Palm Beach International Raceway’s shortened season. He had a unique matchup in the final round. Driving his silver Mercury Cougar, he faced off with North Carolina racer Todd Payne, who was behind the wheel of an electric-powered Tesla.

This time, Doty wasn’t about to let the opportunity pass him by and won on a holeshot with a .017 to .064 advantage at the tree. He finished with a run of 9.197 seconds against a 9.18 dial-in. Trying to make up ground, Payne broke out with a 7.677-second run against a 7.68 dial-in.

 Doty could definitely understand why Payne was trying so hard. He entered the Friday Gamblers race and found out just how tough the competition was at Holly Springs.

“It didn’t work out for me too good,” he said. “The second round yesterday (in the Gamblers race) I was running two classes and lost them both.”

There was also the previous experience from 2019 when Doty was faster at the start with a .030 to .042 reaction time, but lost to South Carolina racer Dustin Carroll from Union County Dragway.

Still, Doty had the persistence and focus to achieve his goal. He was rewarded with a championship prize package which included $7,000 from Summit Racing Equipment, a prestigious IHRA Ironman trophy, an IHRA World Championship diamond ring and an IHRA Gold Card.

He also had the pride of representing PBIR which held its final racing event in April and the admiration of his son, Ethan, also a bracket racer. His son posted on Facebook just how proud he was.

“From being runner-up your first year in 2019 to being World Champ in 2022, you are my hero,” Ethan posted. “I will always look up to you and no one deserves it more than you after 35 years in this sport.”