Teamed with 23-year-old Kiwi star Matt Payne, the 48-year-old Tander joined Larry Perkins and Mark Skaife as a six-time winner of the Great Race.
Tander now holds the record for the longest gap between first and most recent Bathurst wins, having notched up his maiden triumph back in 2000 while at Garry Rogers Motorsport.
That was followed by pairs of wins for the Holden Racing Team (2009 and 2011) and Triple Eight (2020 and 2022).
“It’s amazing, obviously,” said Tander of becoming a six-time Bathurst winner on Sunday evening.
“As a young kid growing up racing go-karts in Perth, just getting the opportunity to race here was an honour let alone to have success.
“To sit here now with six, you’d never dream it as a young kid growing up.
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“I’m really proud of the team. I’ve probably had more to do with this team with the helmet off than any other team I’ve been a part of.
“It’s a very different feeling, a very special feeling.”
Tander walked out on Triple Eight following the 2022 Bathurst triumph to take a multi-faceted role at the emerging Grove team that included mentoring Payne.
Asked if he feels Sunday’s win validated that surprise switch, Tander said: “That’s why it’s so special.
“A lot of people questioned why I’d change from the team that is arguably the most dominant here in Supercars, but the opportunity to be part of building something…
“Stephen and Tanya Grove, and Brenton Grove, everyone involved in Penrite Racing felt that I would be a good fit to help them where they needed help, to continue to grow the team.
“To help with Matt and Kai [Allen] now, to see the growth of the team when I’m not driving the car but also to be part of that as well when I am driving the car. This one is really cool.”
Tander watched on from the garage as protégé Payne fought for the win – including through a wild moment at The Chase with nine laps to go in which the Kiwi thought all had been lost.
“The fact he decided to hang around the outside at the fastest corner in Australia in the pouring rain and have a crack for the lead of the race, I was really, really proud of that,” Tander said.
“The fact it didn’t quite work doesn’t matter because Bathurst being Bathurst, you knew there was going to be a sting in the tail. Whether it went our way or not, it was really, really cool.”
While Tander could impart none of his experience to Payne as the crucial late-race moments unfolded, the veteran was doing what he could in the Grove bunker.
“When Jimmy [Golding] and Cooper [Murray] came together at Turn 2, our garage erupted,” recalled Tander of the moment five laps from home in which Payne shot to the front.
“I was running around telling everyone there’s five laps to go, anything can go sideways here, given the wet conditions. It was a pretty tense final 15 minutes but that’s just what Bathurst is.
“I knew starting 18th it would be one of those days with the weather forecast.
“You just had to keep your head about you and try not to make too many mistakes. Everyone would have made mistakes, it’s just how you recover from them.”
Tander was not immune from mistakes, having survived a hairy moment on the front straight in the early stages when he wiped across the nose of fellow legend Craig Lowndes.
HOW DID THEY HOLD ON TO IT????#RepcoSC #Supercars #Bathurst1000 pic.twitter.com/JpGnsje5K9
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“I had no idea he was there,” Tander professed, noting also that he’d seek out Lowndes to apologise.
“I was actually trying to get up the inside of D-Russ (David Russell) and he was squeezing me, so we were on our way to the wall and then Lowndesy was on the inside of me.
“I felt him, got a little bit sideways, and I was like, ‘well I’m passing D-Russ’, so I went up the inside. Lowndesy sort of pushed me through!”
The fact Tander held the Peter Brock Trophy aloft on Sunday added to a sense that it might be his last hurrah behind the wheel.
Tander’s emergence as a star Supercars TV talent in recent years sees him in the box seat to graduate to a full-time commentary role as part of a mooted 2026 shake-up.
With no such offer formally on the table yet and Grove Racing keen for Tander to drive on, there was no sudden ‘mic drop’ on Sunday night – or the morning after.
“I’m just enjoying this at the moment and certainly don’t make any big decisions in the wake of successful weekends like this,” he said on Monday.
“So just enjoying the moment. I’ve got to go back to my real job next week and be back in TV when we’re on the Gold Coast. I look forward to that.”
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