Ringer is a Scot who began co-driving with Colin McRae when the future champion was still a teenager competing in the junior ranks during the 1980s. Their early partnership laid the groundwork for a working relationship built on accumulated trust and shared experience through the demanding stages of British and international rallying.
Ringer and McRae rose through the ranks together and reached their high point in 1995, when they won the World Rally Championship drivers' title, giving Subaru its first constructors' championship in the same season. It was a landmark moment for British rallying, with McRae becoming the first Briton to win the WRC title.
The duo attempted to defend the championship in 1996 but struggled with form and reliability. A series of high-profile mid-season crashes, partly attributed to Ringer, contributed to the tension within the camp, and the partnership was dissolved at the end of the season. It was a difficult end to what had been a historic collaboration.
Following a year away from top-level competition, Ringer returned to rallying and paired with Martin Rowe in the British Rally Championship. The combination proved effective: Ringer and Rowe won the 1998 British Rally Championship title driving a Renault Mégane Maxi. They also competed together in the World Rally Championship in 1999, extending their partnership into the world stage.
Ringer subsequently moved to Mitsubishi for two seasons, gaining experience with a different manufacturer and continuing to demonstrate his versatility as a co-driver at the highest level.
In 2002, McRae parted ways with his then co-driver Nicky Grist, which opened the door for a reunion with Ringer. For the 2003 season, the two Scots were paired once more at Citroën. Despite the sentimental appeal of the reunion, the partnership did not recapture the success of their 1995 peak, and neither man secured a competitive seat at Citroën beyond that year. McRae went on to contest only three further world rallies, each time with Nicky Grist in the notes seat.
In February 2008, Ringer took on an interim co-driving role alongside American rally driver Travis Pastrana, stepping in from the second round of the season — the 100 Acre Wood event on 22 February. Pastrana's regular co-driver, Christian Edstrom, had announced his retirement from rallying following the opening round in January, and Ringer's experience made him a natural stopgap choice.
Derek Ringer's name is permanently linked to one of rallying's defining moments: the 1995 World Rally Championship, a title that placed a Scot alongside Scotland's greatest rally driver in the sport's record books. His ability to rebuild his career after the split with McRae, win a national title with a different partner, and later return to international competition speaks to his professionalism and durability as a co-driver across several decades of top-level rallying.