The Unbound Energy MX Story Continues; New Chapters Set to be Written @ ’09 MX Nationals

Unbound-backed GEICO Powersports/Honda Lites team powers into the Glen Helen, Calif., MX National here next week

CARLSBAD, Calif., (May 15, 2009) – Entering its fifth season supporting the sport of professional motocross racing, ampm and Unbound Energy announced today its continued backing the MX Lites GEICO Powersports/Honda team of Trey Canard, Blake Wharton, Brett Metcalfe and Dan Reardon.

“The Unbound Energy programs enjoyed numerous successes throughout the supercross season – from Blake’s breakthrough rookie year win at St. Louis, to Trey’s win at the final WSX round (Salt Lake City) - we’re please with the effort put forth by all the racers running the ampm and Unbound Energy logos this past supercross season,” said Unbound Energy’s Jon Bratta. “And we look forward to the athletes continuing to push their limits and improving their personal-best efforts this summer at the outdoor nationals, beginning in a couple weeks at Glen Helen (Calif.).”

The storied tradition of Unbound Energy in motocross began around this time some five years ago when Unbound signed on as the title sponsor of the then Unbound Energy/MDK team featuring Nick Wey and Eric McCrummen. At the time a ‘new’ action sports-oriented energy drink, Unbound, was an instant hit with the MX community.

Several races into the season Unbound Energy’s Bratta stepped up and signed a young racer from Pennsylvania named Broc Hepler (Team Makita/Suzuki), adding to Unbound’s ranks one of the top up-and-coming racers representing one of the Big Four factory teams. Said Bratta in an ’05 Unbound Energy press release: “Unbound Energy Drink and Broc Hepler are an ideal fit in that both are relatively new names to their field, yet on the same token, both have made an immediate impact in their field: Hepler, by winning Unadilla last week and Unbound, with its sizable sales impact at am/pm stores this summer. Both parties look forward to a long and prosperous relationship through the great sport of motocross.”

Hepler joining Unbound Energy was to foreshadow an even larger scale event that would forever seal the new energy drink’s name into the sport’s history as a couple weeks later during the summer of ‘05 officials at Unbound announced an alliance with the National Promoters Group (NPG) that named the motocross-friendly energy drink as the title sponsor for the Washougal (Wash.) round of the 2005 AMA Motocross Championship, presented by FMF.

Unbound Energy was on the radar now not only as a major athlete/team sponsor, but now as the title sponsor for one of the highest-attended American MX races on the summer tour. Said Bratta in that 2005 release: “Washougal is definitely one of the biggies in terms of attendance. We invite the legions of motocross fans that come out to Washougal to stop by our tent and sample the new Unbound Energy Drink product. We think you’ll agree, like Nick and Broc, that Unbound’s quickly becoming the drink-of-choice for the MX community.”

As nearly 30,000 fans packed into the track just a few clicks north of the Columbia River and Portland, Ore., Unbound Energy’s popularity would skyrocket, applying the highly-important ‘street cred’ label to the Unbound Energy brand within the MX community. And Hepler worked to instill that brand image back east, winning the final MX National of the season just outside Pittsburgh, Pa., at Steel City Raceway.

For 2006 things would get even bigger as, in addition to Wey and the Unbound Energy/MDK team and Hepler, Unbound would align with one of the top supercross names of the new millennium – Chad Reed (Yamaha). On top of that Unbound stepped up to sponsor the entire Unbound Energy/Moto XXX team, including ‘05 AMA Rookie of the Year Juss Lansoo, along with Tim “Red Dog” Ferry, holeshot artist veteran Kyle Lewis and the hyper fast Josh Summey.

“By ’06 Unbound Energy was rolling, having dialed-in former champion Reed to go with ’04 125 outdoor runner up Hepler, Wey and the Unbound/MDK team and the Moto XXX team,” recalled Bratta. “It was at that point you could see that the brand had truly arrived on the motocross scene and was continuing to strengthen brand recognition with motocross fans from coast to coast.”

Reed had a spectacular supercross season in ‘06, putting Unbound Energy on top of the 250cc (SX class) podium at St. Louis and Dallas and scoring an additional 12 podium finishes. He’d then go on to score six more podium finishes racing the nationals, though his season would get cut short by an injury. Wey also had one of the better years of his career, finishing 5th overall in 250cc class supercross racing (podiums at San Francisco, Orlando and Dallas) and 8th outdoors with three overall top five finishes. Note: Between Reed and Wey, Unbound Energy appeared on every 250cc class podium in 2006!

Ferry put up some excellent numbers as well in ’06 for Unbound Energy, scoring six top ten finishes in supercross and three top five finishes outdoors. And the veteran Lewis ran well outdoors, making the top 15 (out of 40 racers) five times to record the last ever overall top 15 250 class finish of his long-running motocross career.

For the ’06 125cc (Lites) season ampm and Unbound Energy was led by Hepler who recorded race wins at Millville (Minn.), Binghamton (N.Y.) and Steel City in finishing 6th overall, and Summey – with five overall top ten finishes – placed 10th outdoors. Unbound Energy also stepped up to help out the Unbound/MD1/Tokyo Mods/Fox team featuring Daniel Sani and Ryan Abrigo.

Unbound Energy then wrapped up 2006 supercross season in a big way, throwing a giant sweepstakes contest in which the lucky winner won a trip for two to the Amp’d Mobile AMA Supercross Series final round in sunny Las Vegas! The resister-to-win contest was featured on www.unboundenergy.com and drew a great deal of interest from the motocross community. According to Bratta: “It’s a way for Unbound to give back to the fans that support the sport.”

In 2007, just a couple months after the close of the ’06 outdoor national MX season, Unbound Energy stepped up its sponsorship of Reed to a new level – securing the sponsorship of the L&M Racing effort with both Reed and former SX Lites regional champion, Nathan “Nate Dog” Ramsey. Reed opened the ’07 World Supercross campaign with a bang – winning the Toronto SX opener over defending World Supercross GP champion James Stewart and last year’s Amp’d Mobile AMA Supercross Series champion, Ricky Carmichael. Reed would go on to complete another stellar year running the Unbound Energy logo, scoring a win and 14 additional podium finishes in the 250cc class to place 2nd overall in the supercross series.

2008 was a rebuilding year for Unbound Energy as they continued the long-standing tradition of grass roots sponsorship of amateur motocross racers, as well as sponsoring the AMA Supercross “Privateer of the Year,” Paul Carpenter, along with his cousin, Jack Carpenter, and the Atomic Racing team.

This year obviously brought Unbound Energy back to the forefront of supercross with the sponsorship of Team Honda’s factory Lites class support team – Unbound Energy/GEICO Powersports/Honda. Featuring the aforementioned racers, Unbound made its way back to the top of the podium and looks forward to continuing its successful run with the Honda Lites program throughout the upcoming outdoor national MX season.

Date Venue City/State

5/23 Glen Helen San Bernardino, Calif.

5/30 Hangtown Prairie City, Calif.

6/6 Freestone Wortham, Texas

6/13 High Point Mt. Morris, Pa.

6/27 Thunder Valley Lakewood, Colo.

7/4 RedBud Buchanan, Mich.

7/18 Spring Creek Millville, Minn.

7/25 Washougal Washougal, Wash.

8/15 Unadilla New Berlin, N.Y.

8/22 Budds Creek Mechanicsville, Md.

8/29 Southwick Southwick, Mass.

9/5 Steel City Delmont, Pa.

Next up for Unbound Enegy’s Canard, Wharton, Metcalfe and Dan Reardon is the opening round of the Lucas Oil AMA Outdoor National MX Series at Glen Helen (May 23). And check out what’s happening with the GEICO Powersports/Honda Team – fueled by Unbound Energy – at www.unboundenergy.com


Make your own rules…live outside the lines. Unbound Energy is available in 16 oz. cans at BP, am/pm retail and CVS locations, with more locations being added every day!