Garth Tander: Supercars Career, Bathurst Wins & Life After Racing

Bathurst 1000 Wins (as main driver): 3 (2000, 2009, 2011) · Supercars Championship: 2007 · Born: Perth, Western Australia, 31 March 1977 · Current Role: Supercars TV Commentator · Full-Time Racing Retirement: 2021

Seven rows, one pattern: a career that began in Perth in 1998 and ended in 2025 with 58 wins and six Bathurst victories.

What Is Garth Tander Doing Now?

Garth Tander is not the type to disappear from the paddock. Since stepping away from full-time driving, he has become a regular voice across Supercars’ television coverage, and in 2026 he will add an official off-track role at Grove Racing as Team and Driver Advisor (Speedcafe – motorsport news).

Current Role as TV Commentator

• Regular commentator across the Supercars TV broadcast
• Reportedly part of the 2026 broadcast team (Speedcafe – motorsport news)
• Confirmed as Team and Driver Advisor at Grove Racing from 2026 (Speedcafe – motorsport news)

Broadcast work suits a driver whose calling card was always racecraft rather than controversy. Tander reads a race the way he drove one — with a plan and a contingency — and that translates naturally to commentary.

Speedcafe reported that Grove Racing confirmed Tander would continue with the team in a new Team and Driver Advisor position, keeping his experience inside the organisation rather than losing it to a rival (Speedcafe – motorsport news). That role, paired with the media work, means he stays close to the series he helped define.

Occasional Racing Engagements

• Continued in endurance events after stepping back from full-time driving
• Culminated in the 2025 Bathurst 1000 win with Matt Payne for Grove Racing (Supercars – official driver bio)

Tander never really left the cockpit after 2021; he just chose his battles. Endurance racing let him do the thing he does best — arrive at a major event, share a car with a younger driver, and put together one decisive lap when it mattered. The 2025 Bathurst 1000 was the capstone: he and Payne won for Grove Racing, and weeks later he turned that victory into a farewell announcement during the Sandown 500 broadcast.

Is Garth Tander Retired?

The honest answer is yes, but the exit took time. Tander stopped full-time racing after 2021 and spent four more seasons as an endurance co-driver before calling time in November 2025 (Supercars – retirement report).

Full-Time Racing Retirement

• Stepped away from full-time Supercars competition after the 2021 season
• Made the break permanent in November 2025 (Supercars – retirement report)

The 2021 season ended with Tander stepping away from the full-time Supercars calendar. From that point, his racing was built around endurance events and media work, not a full season in the car.

Endurance Racing Participation

• Continued as a co-driver in selected endurance rounds through 2025
• Won the 2025 Bathurst 1000 with Matt Payne for Grove Racing in that part-time role

The part-time arrangement produced the best possible farewell. At the 2025 Bathurst 1000, Tander and Payne won for Grove Racing, delivering Tander his sixth win in the event. Weeks later, he announced his retirement during Fox Sports’ Sandown 500 broadcast (Speedcafe – motorsport news).

The trade-off: Tander got the send-off every driver wants — a final Bathurst win — but the sport also lost one of its most experienced active drivers.

Has Garth Tander Ever Won Bathurst?

Yes — six times. That puts him in very select company at Mount Panorama, and it is the statistic that defines his career.

Bathurst 1000 Victories

• 2000 — first Bathurst 1000 win, with Mark Skaife
• 2009 — second Bathurst 1000 win, with Will Davison
• 2011 — third Bathurst 1000 win, with Nick Percat
• 2025 — sixth Bathurst 1000 win, as co-driver with Matt Payne (Supercars – official driver bio)

Speedcafe’s retirement coverage noted that Tander won Bathurst three times as a co-driver, across two different drivers and two different teams (Speedcafe – motorsport news). Add those three to his three wins as the lead driver, and the total is six.

Bathurst’s affinity with Tander extends beyond the 1000. His official website notes that he finished first and second in the only two Bathurst 24hr races ever held (GarthTander.com – official website).

What this means: in any ranking of Australian endurance drivers, Tander sits on a very short list — and the 2025 win shows how a 48-year-old co-driver closed the deal.

What Happened to Garth Tander’s Marriage?

This is the part of Tander’s life that the public record keeps thin. He married Jessica Tander, the couple has children, and in 2022 they separated. That is essentially the entire official summary — and Tander has added nothing to it in public.

Separation from Jessica Tander

• Married Jessica Tander; the couple has children together
• Separated in 2022
• No detailed public statement from either side has been released

Neither Tander nor Jessica has offered a detailed account of the split, and no further explanation has been confirmed. The absence of detail is itself notable: Tander has rarely discussed family life in interviews, and that silence has continued.

The pattern: a driver who controlled every corner of his racing career has chosen to leave one part of his life completely off the record.

Does Garth Tander Have a New Partner?

As of 2025, there is no public confirmation of a new partner, and no official announcement has been made.

Current Relationship Status

• No public confirmation of a new partner as of 2025
• No official announcement about a relationship
• His personal life stays out of his media appearances

The short answer is that nobody outside Tander’s circle knows. That is not a rumour gap so much as a boundary: since 2022, he has built a public identity almost entirely around motorsport, and the record shows no sign of that changing.

The takeaway: anyone expecting a personal-life update from Tander is reading the wrong driver. His private life is private, and the public record has nothing further to add.

Timeline of Garth Tander’s Career and Life

Twelve milestones, one pattern: Tander collected Bathurst wins in three different decades — 2000, 2009, 2011 and 2025 — before finally stepping away.

The pattern: Tander’s career has two clear acts — a full-time driving act that produced a championship and three Bathurst wins, and a second act as an endurance specialist that produced three more. The personal milestones run alongside, but Tander has kept them far quieter than anything that happened on track.

Confirmed Facts and What Remains Unclear

Both sides of Tander’s story deserve to be separated: what the record proves, and what the public simply does not know.

The catch: the public record is all racing; everything personal sits in the unclear column, and that gap is unlikely to narrow unless Tander decides to close it himself.

What the Sources Say

Three published assessments capture the arc of Tander’s career better than any single statistic.

Garth Tander has retired as the 2007 Supercars champion and six-time Bathurst winner.

Supercars – official retirement report

Tander won Bathurst three times as a co-driver across two different drivers and two different teams.

Speedcafe – retirement coverage

Supercars Champion in 2007; third overall in 2008 and 2009.

GarthTander.com – official biography

Why this matters: the organisations that tracked Tander’s career all reach for the same two anchors — the 2007 title and Bathurst. That consistency is the strongest sign of how his legacy will be read.

The Road Ahead for Tander and Supercars

Tander’s exit is rare in motorsport: he left after a Bathurst win, not after a slow fade, and his next move was already in place — a broadcast seat and a Grove Racing advisory role. For Supercars, keeping him on the microphone softens the loss of one of its most recognisable faces. For Grove Racing, the decision is clear: build the Team and Driver Advisor role around Tander’s 648-race knowledge bank, or watch a rival team give him that job first.

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