ICYMI | Catching Up with #33 Yanick Boucher | Presented by Husqvarna
By Billy Rainford
Last week, we caught up with #33 Yanick Boucher from Hearst, Ontario.
Yanick is a rider who is busy in all season here in Canada. He’s a Pro Motocrosser in the summer and a Pro Snowbike Crosser in the winter months.
He’s racing at the TransCan at Walton Raceway this week in the Youth Intermediate/Pro class so he’s getting lots of track time heading into Round 3 of the Rockstar Triple Crown Tour MX Nationals this Sunday.
Here’s what he had to say when we spoke with him this week:
Direct Motocross: Hello, Yanick. We went into your history last time we did this, so I’ll spare you that. Let’s go back to last season and talk about that. What was the highlight of your Canadian season?
Yanick Boucher: Hi Billy. Last season was a great one. The highlight for me was getting some top 15 finishes and ending up 12th overall on the season.
And how about your Snobike Cross season? I saw results of one race where you lapped everyone…twice! How was that series?
The snow bike season this past winter was awesome! We had many good races finishing up second overall on the ISOC circuit south of the border, second overall on the Canadian series and of course the highlight was definitely getting a silver medal at X Games!
What did you get up to while we were all on lockdown for the COVID-19 deal?
For me the whole Covid deal kind a gave me a bit of a break in between seasons which I don’t usually get, so it was nice. I was able to stay at home, work and spend some time with family and friends.
Were you able to come into this season as prepared as you would have liked?
Yes, I was able to get a lot more riding in than usual before coming into the season. Spent some good time at Runway Park in Sault St. Marie riding some deep sand to get ready for Gopher. I would’ve liked to make it to a couple races to get some gate drops in but wasn’t able to do so.
How did Round 1 at Gopher Dunes go for you?
Round 1 went well! Saturday didn’t start off well after having some issues in practice but we were able to get things figured out for the motos and kept improving as the weekend went on with 14-13-12 moto scores.
Where did you spend the time between then and Walton? Where were you riding?
After Gopher I spent a little bit of time at Flybyu Motorsports in Huntsville to get some service done on my suspension. Then spent some time in Sudbury working with Serge Solomon on my riding and we went to Motopark the week prior to Walton to get back on some hard pack.
And then you had that bad crash on the first lap of Moto 1 at Walton. Do you remember what happened?
Yes, unfortunately moto 1 ended fairly quickly for me. Coming through the rollers on the first lap I singled out of them and hit a kicker on the last face that sent me straight into a nose-dive. I went over that bars right onto the hard ground on the edge of the track. Definitely didn’t feel good but I was lucky to walk away with just a banged up shoulder. I tried to go back out but my bike was too damaged for me to keep going.
How were you feeling on Sunday?
I was really sore on Sunday morning. Haha. But once I got warmed up I felt decent and was able to line up for the motos.
How did your motos 2 and 3 go?
Moto 2 went well got an okay start and was able to survive the mud to finish in 13th. Moto 3 was tough for me I got a great start but went down in the second corner. From then I kinda struggled the whole moto going down 2 more times. I ended up 18th which gave 17th overall on the weekend.
And now we’ve got a long week of TransCan racing and it looks like a lot of fast riders will be in the Youth class. Are you OK to race this week? I saw your nose was pretty banged up.
Yes, still a little banged up but I will be lining up in the Youth class! I’m excited to get some racing in at the TransCan this week. Good opportunity to ride the track and have some fun!
What are you hoping to accomplish this Sunday and the rest of the season?
For the rest of the season I really wanna keep improving my riding and try and get in that top 10 before the end of the season.
Will you be racing in the snow again this winter, assuming it happens? X Games?
Yes, that’s the plan. I’m looking forward to getting back on snow! Hopefully things keep improving and we have a winter season. After finishing 2nd at X Games this past winter we have an automatic invite to the event this winter so I really hope it will happen!
OK, thanks for taking the time with us. Good luck, and who would you like to thank?
Thank you for reaching out to me! I wanna give a big thank you to everyone behind me this summer: my team Bailey Motorsports, Husqvarna Motorcycles, Boucher Plumbing, Motul lubricants, Central Marine Muskoka, Flybyu Motorsports, St Onge Recreation, Hall Race Fuels, Scott Motorsports, Atlas Brace, Deft Family, Flo Motorsports, 139 Designs, Team LTD, Ohlins, Evolved Sports Science and my parents for always supporting me.
