Neil Crompton has finally opened up in detail about his exit from the commentary booth almost a year after the move shocked motorsport fans, and revealed the insult from Supercars CEO James Warburton that still stings.

Crompton and his co-caller, fellow driving great Mark Skaife, were moved on from their jobs in February after Crompton had spent years as the voice of Supercars. There was an outcry from fans, and the pair refused an offer to return to the official broadcast for this season’s enduro races at Bathurst and The Bend.

5

The 66-year-old has now explained that he was asked to take a shocking pay cut and would have been happy to be gradually eased out of the job, but was told Supercars had done research that showed he had to go as part of a revamp.

Crompton told Speedcafe that he was asked to accept “an 80 per cent reduction in income” in what he described as “a monumental shift in my life”. He thought his job was in jeopardy from the midway point of last season and he was “told the research says you’ve got to go” because the coverage was “old and tired”.

But one exchange with Warburton stands out for all the wrong reasons, with the Supercars boss getting Crompton badly offside during a discussion about a plan to bring in a commentator from the NRL to pair up with colour man and former Bathurst champ Garth Tander.

“The one that actually did insult me was ‘we need a proper caller’. I don’t know what the f*** he [Warburton] thought I’d been doing for 25 years,” Crompton said. “Even if you said that I was borderline incompetent, that one stung.”

The former Holden Dealer Team driver accepts that Supercars’ TV coverage needed an injection of youth because TV needs people who “look young and fresh and vibrant”, but added, “Can you hear grey hair in the commentary? I don’t think so.”

Although this year’s Bathurst race was the first in more than 40 years in which Crompton hadn’t competed or called, he did score a TV role of sorts by starring in a Repco ad campaign for the Great Race.