Derek Ringer is a Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 rally

Rallying

Rallying, also known as rally racing, is a form of auto racing that takes place on public or private roads with modified production or specially built road-legal cars...

 co-driver

Co-driver

Co-driver is the term given to the navigator of rally car in the sport of rally racing, who sits in the front passenger seat. The co-driver's job is to navigate, by reading off a set of pacenotes to the driver, often over a radio headset, due to the high level of noise in the car...

. He is most closely associated with Colin McRae

Colin McRae

Colin Steele McRae, MBE was a Scottish rally driver born in Lanark.The son of five-time British Rally Champion Jimmy McRae and brother of rally driver Alister McRae, Colin McRae was the 1991 and 1992 British Rally Champion and, in 1995, became the first British person and the youngest to win the...

, with whom he won the 1995 World Rally Championship.

Although their partnership extended back to the 1980s when McRae was a teenager, the two split at the end of 1996 when they failed to defend their title, several mid-season crashes being blamed on Ringer. After a year's absence, Ringer returned to partner Martin Rowe in the British Rally Championship

British Rally Championship

The Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship is a yearly rallying series based in the United Kingdom. It comprises seven events with eight scoring opportunities throughout the British Isles. The first championship was run in 1958 and it has been licensed by the MSA Motor Sports Association since...

, the pair winning the 1998 title in a Renault Mégane Maxi

Renault Mégane

The Renault Mégane is a small family car produced by the French automaker Renault since 1995. It is offered in 3- and 5-door hatchback, saloon, coupé, convertible and estate bodystyles...

 and competing together in the World Rally Championship in 1999.

Ringer then moved on to Mitsubishi

Mitsubishi Motors

is a multinational automaker headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. In 2009 it was the fifth-largest Japan-based automaker and the 17th-largest in the world measured by production...

 for two years, before McRae's split with replacement co-driver Nicky Grist

Nicky Grist

Nicky Grist is a Welsh former rally co-driver, born in Ebbw Vale. His factory team career in the World Rally Championship lasted from 1993 to 2002. He won 21 rallies and one World championship titles, with more than one driver....

 in 2002 reunited the two Scots for 2003. However, the partnership did not yield fresh success and both men lost their seats at Citroën

Citroën

Citroën is a major French automobile manufacturer, part of the PSA Peugeot Citroën group.Founded in 1919 by French industrialist André-Gustave Citroën , Citroën was the first mass-production car company outside the USA and pioneered the modern concept of creating a sales and services network that...

. McRae competed in only three more world rallies, partnered by Nicky Grist on each occasion.

In February 2008, Ringer served as Travis Pastrana's

Travis Pastrana

Travis Alan Pastrana is an American motorsports competitor and stunt performer who has won championships and X Games gold medals in several events, including supercross, motocross, freestyle motocross, and rally racing. He runs a show called Nitro Circus with some of his friends...

 interim co-driver beginning with the second-round, 100 Acre Wood event on 22 February. Pastrana's former co-driver, Christian Edstrom

Christian Edstrom

Björn Christian Edstrom is a professional co-driver from New York, New York, United States. Most recently, Christian was a Subaru Rally Team USA member, co-driving for Travis Pastrana in car number 199....

announced his retirement from rallying after one race in January.