Following the off-season departures of Neil Crompton and Mark Skaife, Supercars Media has been holding an extended audition process across the start of this year.
Chad Neylon, Richard Craill and Matt Naulty have rotated through the lead caller chair alongside new expert comments caller Garth Tander.
It has been a two-round rotation with Neylon calling Sydney and Albert Park, Craill the New Zealand double-header while Naulty made his debut in Tasmania and will also call Darwin.
After that, however, it is expected that one of the three will be handed the lead commentator role on a permanent basis.
According to Supercars interim CEO Barclay Nettlefold, that decision will be left entirely to Supercars Media boss Nathan Prendergast.
“It’s Nathan Prendergast’s call,” said Nettlefold.
Secure your spot today.
“I had dinner with him [before Tasmania] and basically said you need to present your final line-up, including your enduro line-up, and we should have that by Darwin.”
The chosen commentator will permanently lead the call with Tander and in some cases, mostly longer races, a second expert caller such as James Courtney or Mark Winterbottom.
Where the picture is complicated is for the two endurance events when Courtney and Winterbottom will be absent due to their driving duties.
That means additional talent will need to be called in, opening the door for potential cameos from Crompton and Skaife.
The latter is particularly likely to feature given Skaife’s ongoing connections to primary broadcaster Fox Sports through the new Motor Racing 360 magazine show.
“Mark is certainly is available,” said Nettlefold.
“But again, let’s get through the first six rounds, let Nathan review, let him work out who’s right for his team in his view, and let him own it.
“He’ll make a better decision than I will.”
As well as the commentary changes for this year, the Supercars broadcast product underwent another major shift with a new production partner in NEP.
It has been far from smooth sailing, though, with graphics gaffes a common theme during the broadcasts so far this season.
According to Nettlefold the issues haven’t gone unnoticed by Supercars and are part of a wider de-bugging push that includes getting on top of new on-board camera technology.
“I think it’s teething problems from the new provider and the new systems,” he explained.
“[The graphics] are getting closer now to getting 100 percent accurate, but I can’t say much more than that.
“We’ve taken on a whole seismic change to the way we’re producing [the broadcast], including the in-car cameras.
“And even then we’re still waiting for our hamburger [cameras] to rotate, we’re still waiting for the [rear-facing] cameras to rotate, and there’s still been too much vibration in the in the in-car cameras.
“We’re working on it, we’re fixing it. There’s certainly full attention on getting everything right.”
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