Jonathan Rea is a man with his hand on a second World Superbike Championship and only needs to leave Jerez at this time in a fortnight with 50 or more points to become a king with two crowns, joining such names as Max Biaggi, Colin Edwards, Troy Bayliss, James Toseland, Doug Polen, Troy Corser, Fred Merkel and Carl Fogarty.

But he isn’t really concerned with records, and trying to top the Blackburn rider’s four title isn’t even on the radar. Winning races is the works Kawasaki rider’s thrill ride And over the past two years he has made it look easier than it should be - or even has been.

Rea doesn’t have a plan past the end of 2018 when his Kawasaki contract expires. By then he will be 31 and thinks that could be too young to retire, especially if he is on top, but then the Castletown resident might just want to live in the mountains and run a race school at Phillip Island.

“I’m not interested in beating Fogarty,” he tells bikesportnews.com. “No, records and stuff are nice but nothing beats the feeling of winning. I mean winning the world championship last year was nice but it wasn’t the best moment of the year, the best moments of the year are when you cross the line and come back to parc ferme, that’s got the euphoric race-win feeling.

“You see everyone around happy and you’re the guy of the moment just then. Like a world championship doesn’t give you that or sitting at home with your cup of tea with four trophies won’t give you that. That feeling doesn’t last but that feeling is irreplaceable.”

So winning is like a drug, it’s what keeps people coming back and back again, even when they should know better or it looks like a case of abandon hope…

“That’s when you get guys striking back and they want that feeling more and more. It’s like you get the Tour de France guys crossing the finish line after the biggest stage victory but if he wins the whole Tour De France and he pulls on the yellow jersey it’s a great feeling and it’s nice to be rewarded but it’s not the feeling you get as you cross the line with your hands in the air at that stage, it’s those moments after that,” he continues.

“That’s just the result of all of the moments. It’s the little battles that keep you coming back really. That’s why going through injuries or whatever, if you’ve reached this point you’ve had some hardships for example or you’d be always striving to get back to that feeling and that’s what keeps people coming back.

“It’s personal goals isn’t it, you could be a nine-to-five office man but you want to do a 22-minute 10-mile time trial and the day you get it it’s amazing because you’ve achieved your little goal or you’re on the golf course and you want to shoot around under par and you achieve it, it’s amazing.

“If you set yourself these little goals and when you achieve them it’s amazing, that’s like a huge achievement for yourself and you understand that and it’s all your hard work but then when you do it, it gives you that motivation to keep doing it.”

So what happens if you are so dominant, like last year, that winning is way more likely than not winning?

“There’s races I went into knowing we could win but nothing is guaranteed, but when you do win it doesn’t matter the feeling or the circumstances or whatever, when you see that chequered flag in front of you and there’s nobody in front of you and you cross that line.

“It lasts a couple of corners and when you get back to parc ferme it comes back again and then it kind of dwindles down. Then you go to the airport dressed in your civvies and no-one knows who you are, but those moments are incredible.”

Rea’s contract with Kawasaki runs out at the end of 2018 when he could be a triple champion. Is that it, then, get out at the top and go fishing like Casey Stoner?

“It’ll be nice to still be involved in bikes, maybe still race, I mean I’ll only be 31 so that’s quite young but I think I really want to get out at the top. It’s really hard to say that because of the love of the sport and the potential and the proposal in front of you at 31 to continue the sport would be really hard to turn down even if the motivation was dying a little bit.

“You see riders hanging on till their 40 but I’m just trying to take things year by year. There’s a part of me that would like to walk away on top and go to mountains in Australia and ride my bicycle and run a Kawasaki track day school at Phillip Island and enjoy riding a bike with no pressure but then there’s part of me that would love to carry on racing till I’m 35 or 40.”