An Allstars MX1 race win by KTM Racing Team’s Kayden Minear put the mid-capacity 350 SX-F model’s potential on display at last weekend’s Manjimup 15,000, overcoming a number of Australia’s top 450 class regulars in the opening moto.

The 17-year-old starred in his home state, leading Kyle Webster, Matt Moss and Jed Beaton in race one, before going on to finish 4-3-2 in the remaining three motos, finishing runner-up at the Western Australian event.

“The 350 option kind of became a thing last year,” Minear told MotoOnline. “I came home to Western Australia to race king of the sand and I rode my brothers 350 in the 450 class. Ever since then I just fell in love with riding it.

“It feels exactly like my 250 but just with that extra few horsepower, so it’s really enjoyable to ride. It’s not a heavy bike, so for me coming back from my injury, I knew my arm wouldn’t be able to handle a 450, so we decided to go with a 350 that had a vortex ignition and some stuff done to it.

“I kept up with the 450’s pretty well and even pulled a couple of holeshots. I felt like when we hit third gear they would start to come up beside me, but if I got a good jump out of the gates, I was pretty sweet.

“The only real difference I could notice was down the long straight,” recalled Minear. “Then, when it got rough they could shorten the track up a little bit and pull out of the insides still, whereas I had to carry momentum around the outsides so that I had good speed exiting the turns. Other than that, it kept up pretty good I thought.”

The overall was won by CDR Yamaha Monster Energy Team’s Jed Beaton, while Minear grabbed second ahead of Australian ProMX MX1 series leader, Boost Mobile Honda’s Kyle Webster in third.