Runaway World Superbike leader Jonathan Rea says that despite a massive 133 point lead over Kawasaki team-mate Tom Sykes, he is still all about winning and will not just be riding for the championship at Laguna Seca this weekend.

The Castletown resident could wrap up his first world title as soon as Jerez in September if his run of wins continues as it has done so far this year but he won’t bow to team pressure to knock it off.

“I want to win. Especially at Laguna, because it is a track I haven’t won at and if I have a really solid weekend here it’s putting me in a really, really solid position in the championship and I can start thinking about it then,” said Rea, speaking to bikesportnews.com.

“It’s not over until it’s over. Yeah sure, it’s a comfortable gap but it is a gap because we’ve worked really hard. We have been constant, we’ve had a great bike from the first race and it’s continued on being great.

“The gap shouldn’t be that big but some of my rivals have had off days whereas on our off days we’ve managed to collect a real, real handful of points.

“My main motivation comes from winning races and one thing that has been really good for me coming to Kawasaki is that I have such a strong team-mate. The best for you to beat is your team-mate as he’s on equal equipment, so that’s a highly motivating factor – it just happens to be that I’m on the most competitive bike in the championship; normally when you beat your team-mate in that situation you win the race. So I want to win more and more, as it will make it even sweeter than thinking about a title at this moment.”

See Thursday’s Bikesport News for our full Laguna WSBK preview