Tander's 'rookie' feeling in main game commentary debut

Garth Tander has revealed he felt like a "rookie" stepping in to call main game action at last month's Merlin Darwin Triple Crown.

The 2007 series champion split Supercars sessions with long-time support category commentator Chad Neylon, with Mark Skaife to anchoring the commentary of the Northern Territory event.

The tweaked commentary line-up came amid Supercars Hall of Famer Neil Crompton's recovery from prostate cancer surgery.

Tander, who made his broadcast debut at the Repco Mt Panorama 500, also calls the Dunlop Super2 Series alongside Neylon, as well as tackling pit reporter duties.

The 44-year-old was announced as part of the rotating commentary roster with Crompton and Skaife for the 2021 season, but he admits his "big seat" debut came earlier than expected.

"It’s through circumstances that none of us wanted due to Neil’s condition," Tander told the Parked Up Podcast.

"It’s great news that he is on the recovery, and we will hopefully see him again soon.

Tander with broadcast hosts Mark Skaife and Jess Yates.

"But yes, into the big chair... I was going to be in the big chair at this stage sometime this year, but five weekends into my television career, I wasn’t expecting it to be that soon.

"It was a big weekend, lots to do in the background, but I thoroughly enjoyed it."

Tander, who won last year's Bathurst 1000 with Shane van Gisbergen, is no stranger to broadcasting, having previously commentated on support categories and the Bathurst 12 Hour.

He brings a fresh outlook, having now called five rounds of support categories since March.

"I’m certainly becoming more and more comfortable with the support categories," Tander said.

"The thing that was so much different in calling the main game is pit stops, calling the pit stop cycle and understanding the best way to call that.

Tander and van Gisbergen won the Great Race last October

"We are all race car nerds and we’ve all got data, info and predictions which will predict where people will come out after the pit stop cycle.

"And I didn’t really want to give away, there’s no point saying, ‘Someone is going to come out one second ahead of someone else', because you are giving the story away before it happens.

"So, it’s about understanding the best way to call that and get comfortable wit the pit stop cycle.

"Mark Skaife and Neil Crompton do an awesome job, there’s so much going on with spreadsheets running, team radio in the background, and you’ve got producers talking to you in your ears, there’s so much happening.

"In the Saturday race, probably felt like I was a bit of a rookie, whereas on the Sunday race I felt much more comfortable."

The 56-time race winner will return to the Red Bull Ampol Racing fold in 2021 to co-drive alongside van Gisbergen in Bathurst.

Away from the Supercars paddock, the father of two spends his free weekends at the karting track with his family in Melbourne.

Eight-year-old Sebastian and 10-year-old Scarlett are keen karters, are both are keen to follow in the footsteps of their title-winning parents.

"Given I’m working 14 Supercar weekends a year and I think there are seven or eight GT races this year, they miss out on a lot of racing opportunities," Tander said.

"So, whenever I’m able and I’m at home, we are racing on the weekends.

"They have missed out a bit but as it’s school holidays now, we hit the track quite a bit.

"It’s their thing, they saw mum and dad doing it when they were growing up and they wanted to do it.

"We only go to the track when they want to go and when they worked out it was school holidays coming up and I was going to be at home, they booked in a lot of practice days.

"I’ll be living at the track for the next couple of weeks."

The Repco Supercars Championship field will return to North Queensland for the NTI Townsville 500 across July 9-11. Tickets are available here.

The event will be broadcast live on Foxtel and will be streamed on Kayo, and will be broadcast live and free on Seven.