Tander was a star addition to the commentary box this year, elevated into an expert comments role after a five-year apprenticeship in pit lane.
The 2007 Supercars champion called time on his co-driving career to take up the opportunity, signing off with a sixth Bathurst 1000 victory last October.
Tander stepped into the coveted commentary position in place of Skaife, who was shuffled out along with former voice of the sport Neil Crompton.
The 49-year-old Tander spoke candidly about the saga during an appearance on the Lucky Dogs Podcast with Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown.
“That was a challenging period for everyone involved, absolutely. I’ve spoken to Neil quite a bit. I haven’t caught up with Mark,” Tander revealed.
“I get it because it probably wasn’t handled as well as it could have been handled at the end for those guys. Those guys were the voices of Supercars for a long time…
“It’s difficult because you feel like you’re stepping into their chair, but I didn’t go into Supercars and say, ‘hey, give me their job, I want it’.
“They’ve given me this opportunity. So it’s a little bit awkward…”
Despite the apparent frostiness, Tander declared it an honour to follow in the footsteps of his former Holden Racing Team stablemate.
“I got to be Mark’s teammate. I got to race against him,” he said.
“I got to work with him in the broadcast and now I’m effectively doing Mark’s role as the expert in the commentary box.
“It’s been a real honour to be this close to him, because he’s a Hall of Famer, a six-time Bathurst winner.
“He’s won the championship so many times. His record stands for itself.”
The wholesale change in the commentary team means Tander has been thrust into the expert role alongside a rotation of lead callers.
Chad Neylon, Richard Craill and Matt Naulty are each being given two events before one is selected for full-time duties following Darwin.
James Courtney and Mark Winterbottom have also cycled through as a second expert voice across the longer races.
Tander said that “change is scary” for fans, but believes the much-discussed shake-up needed to result in the broadcasts having a new sound.
“There’s no point putting two new guys in there, trying to sound like two guys that have been doing it before,” he said.
“So it’s going to sound different. We’re going to use different words. It’s going to be structured differently.
“And now I think everyone’s becoming comfortable with the opportunity they’ve been given.
“For Chad and for Richard and for Matt, it’s such a fantastic opportunity.
“Those guys have been in the trenches for so long doing support categories and pounding up and down pit lane and doing other categories and doing the apprenticeship.
“It’s great they’re getting an opportunity to make it their own as well.”
Skaife has this year taken up a role on Fox Sports’ Motorsport 360, while Supercars is keen for the legend to return to its race broadcasts for the Enduro Cup.
Check out more with Tander on the latest episode of Lucky Dogs below
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