Sports figures often exclaim after a significant victory that they’re going to celebrate by going to Disneyland. Antron Brown is heading in the opposite direction after claiming his fourth Indianapolis victory Monday at the Dodge Power Brokers U.S. Nationals.

Brown will be heading to the nation’s capital to represent SEMA and PRI in testifying before a U.S. Senate committee Sept. 7 in support of the so-called RPM Act, the Recognizing the Protection of Motorsports Act.

The bill is intended to pre-empt an Environmental Protection Agency draft ruling from 2015 that would make converting production vehicles into dedicated race cars. The EPA’s contention is that modifying street cars into race cars would make them non-compliant with federal emission standards.

SEMA President and CEO Mike Spagnola said, “Passage of the RPM Act will bring clarity to grassroots racers and businesses that manufacture, sell, and distribute motorsports parts. We’re grateful to the elected officials who strongly support and advocate for Congress to pass the RPM Act. The industry has been in limbo and in a state of uncertainty for far too long. It’s time to pass the RPM Act.”

And that’s when team owner and Top Fuel driver Brown begins his lobbying effort.

He said, “A lot of people don't realize SEMA and all the PRI members and the PRI staff, they've been fighting the RPM Act battle for the last six years. A lot of people didn’t even know what's going on behind the scenes. EPA, they have the Clean Air Act, and they've been saying that they're not going to stop motorsports from happening. And they have numerous cases where they stepped in and stepped over their boundaries – where they stop people from wanting to modify standard race vehicles, motorcycles, cars, so they can race them on closed course circuits like we race on, to go from being like Erica Enders from Jr. Dragsters to being a Pro Stock car champion.

“And what they don't realize,” Brown said, “is that the RPM Act is going to protect that if we can get this passed. And I'm going as a witness representing motorsports, like a lot of other people before me have done for the last six years. I'm honored that the President of PRI, Dr. Jamie Meyer, called me up and said, ‘AB, we need you.’ And when he told me what it was all about, I said, ‘Hands down, I'm all in,’ because without that, this kid from New Jersey, the one that got to modify his GXR 1100 and make it from a street bike to a drag bike . . . if I wasn't able to do that and race it at Atco Dragway, Englishtown, Cecil County, Delaware, and all the surrounding dragstrips around New Jersey, Maple Grove, I wouldn't be here sitting in front of you today being a professional drag racer.

“I think that's so vital and so important to our future generations, because that's the way you can do it at an affordable level. And that's what it's all about. It's just educating them, educating all the people on Capitol Hill [about] what we do.”

His message to federal lawmakers is “Don't take away our American Dream.”

He said the effort is bipartisan: “We got over 20 Republicans and 11 Democrats working together. If they all can work together, this world would be such a better place. That's what it's all about. We're going to do this together. It's my honor to go out there and keep our playground with motorsports, full throttle.”

Brown, already emotional about earning his first U.S. Nationals victory as a Top Fuel team owner and his fourth overall at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park less than an hour before, delivered a rousing argument for the RPM Act that had all the patriotic passion of a Presidential campaign speech. 

Representing the motorsports industry probably tops even a fourth U.S. Nationals victory. He admitted that the very thought chokes him up. And it did, to the point he was teary-eyed and barely able to articulate his deep-seated feelings. But then he collected himself and made an eloquent case for the RPM Act.

“It's just one of those deals, it's so special because you never sign up for special moments like this, and what makes the moment so special is when you go out to those ropes at the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series, and you see these little kids that come up and they go, ‘I want to be an Antron Brown’ or, ‘I want to be a John Force’ or ‘I want to be a Steve Torrence or Angelle or Brittany Force or Jasmine Salinas. And you go there where their dream hasn't become a reality yet. And you see people that have no idea the decisions that they make, how it's going to affect the next generation coming up, and how special and how meaningful it is,” he said.

“Because where we're at, they’re going to take that away, and Lord knows that dreams are what built this country. How do you take that away from a little kid that walks up to you and looks up and goes, ‘This is where I want to be. This is what I want to do?’ How do you do that when you don't even know what's going on, making decisions that you have no idea the effect of what it affects?

“It breaks my heart. It breaks and tears me down,” Brown said, “because when I grew up, I'm just a little kid from Chesterfield, New Jersey. My grandpop always told me - he came from a very poor, poor family – you know what he told me? He goes, ‘Son, you can have anything you want in life as long as you work hard for it.’ And he pumped out people's cesspools and septic tanks. And I look back . . . I did it growing up as a kid. It stunk, but I made it through. And people go, ‘Why do you work so hard? Why do you do what you want to do?’

He said it’s “because if I'm not successful out here, I go back to being the No. 1 in the No. 2 business. So what I'm trying to do is live the true dream. And I can't see these people that's never been out here [to drag-racing events] one time take that away from these kids that are coming up, take their dream away from them. Is that America? No, it's not.”

If anyone thought the Dodge Power Brokers U.S. Nationals brought pressure, it’s nothing compared to the personal and economic handcuffs that would be locked onto racers and automotive enthusiasts and auto-aftermarket manufacturers and distributors if Congress doesn’t pass the RPM Act.