GARTH Tander joked he was 'too old' to be at the front in the ARG eSport Cup, but it seems the three-times Bathurst 1000 champion was wrong.
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Not only was the 43-year-old near the front, but he claimed one of the victories in the second round of the simulator racing series at Circuit Zolder, Belgium.
The series, which is being run while regular racing is in shutdown due to the coronavirus, began earlier this month with a virtual challenge of Bathurst's Mount Panorama.
That round saw drama for Tander as during race two, an incident saw his car pirouetting multiple times into the sky.
But when it came to the second race in round two of the series, there were no such dramas for the former Supercars Champion.
Tander was never headed in the reverse top 20 second race, taking a 4.7 second win and his first win in the eSport Cup.
It adds another item to the list of Tander's achievements.
Prior to the coronavirus shutdown, the man who boasts more than 50 Supercars race wins had a mixed start to 2020.
While he was part of the highly fancied Audi Sport Team Valvoline line-up for this year's Bathurst 12 Hour, he and co-drivers Chris Mies and Mirko Bortolotti had their race come to an end on lap 61.
At the start of March he formed part of the TCR grid which was contesting the Asian Pacific Cup at the Australian Grand Prix.
He claimed pole position at Albert Park Audi RS 3 LMS, but the next day the event was cancelled due to the coronavirus.
It meant Tander was declared the victor.
"My corona-enforced holiday started at the AGP after I took home the TCR Asia Pacific Championship. I think I'm the first and only TCR champion of 2020 so far," Tander said on the Parked Up podcast.
"It's all very quiet at the moment which is a shame because it was looking like it was going to be a good year racing-wise, but we need to nip this corona-virus thing in the bud so we can all get on with it hopefully in a few months' time."
In the meantime Tander is contesting the ARG eSport Cup and climbed into eight in the series standings with his success in round two.
British Touring Car star Ash Sutton won the opening race at Circuit Zolder.
Sutton followed up his round one speed at Mount Panorama with pole position before he took a dominant lights to flag win by over 20 seconds ahead of TCR Australia racer Dylan O'Keeffe and 17-year-old Trans Am young gun Nathan Herne.
O'Keefe was the top performer across the two races with a second and a third.
While Tander dominated in race two, Sutton's race unravelled before the first corner when he was sent into the fence before turn one. He recovered to place 13th.
O'Keeffe now leads the ARG eSport Cup on 129 points ahead of Sutton.
Round three of the ARG eSport Cup heads to the famous American road course of Watkins Glen next Thursday, April 16 from 8pm AEST, live on the TCR Australia Facebook page and YouTube channel.
