Jonathan Rea received the Torrens Trophy in recognition of completing a hat-trick of World Superbike Championship titles.
The factory Kawasaki rider who enjoyed his first winning ride of the current campaign - the 55th in his career - earlier in the month was honoured at a posh luncheon at the RAC Club in Pall Mall.
“This is a really special, prestigious award and something special to be recognised in this way,” said Rea who followed in the tyre tracks of his two other WSBK title winners,his team mate Tom Sykes and James Toseland.
“Motorcycles are cool and my dream as a boy was to be a World Champion and here I am with three - I love so much going to my work. We have to take bikes into the mainstream media and it is important to show people how cool this amazing sport is.”
Rea has a two points lead after two round in the current campaign: “I won the first race in Thailand but then had a slight problem with brakes - I was a little bit scared - looking back at it, that was an ugly race but I am happy we stayed out for the points.”
Can he match Carl Fogartys record of four titles? “You can never be confident of a championship - as my team said to me there are 26 little fights along the way and I try to do my best in everyone. For sure someone else is coming along to win the title but hopefully not this year.”