Playing with paper

EAST COUNTY — Pat Ringley carefully places a palm-sized paper race car on the wooden dining room table in his East County home.

Across the room at his workstation — a desk covered in matted paintbrushes and small glass jars each half-full of paint — wait multiple cars in the making. The pieces of paper vary in their level of development, from the first-stage rectangle drawing to the fully painted Corvette in need of a logo on its hood.

“I sit at that desk over there, where I don’t get any interference from the outside world, while I’m working on my little cars,” Ringley says.

After 55 years of sketching, cutting, painting and gluing the seemingly weightless miniature cars, Ringley will receive recognition on an international level. Ringley will attend the 2014 Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame 20th Anniversary induction ceremonies Sept. 27, in Toronto, as an awards presenter. Ringley will be interviewed on stage with blown-up images of his paper race cars hanging behind him.

He will also hand a paper race car to the inductees as they walk across the stage to receive their awards.

The event recognizes Canadian motorsport professionals in karting, motorcycling, powerboating, snowmobilng, stock car racing and other types of racing.

Ringley’s presence at the event commemorates what started in 1959 as a hobby in the bedroom of a lonely 12-year-old boy.

Passing time
Growing up in Indiana in the neighborhood of an IndyCar series driver, Ringley spent his summer afternoons watching trailers load his neighbor’s race car for an upcoming event.

Ringley says he didn’t have many friends growing up.

One day, his mother suggested he make his own fun.

“She told me, ‘Just make something out of paper,’” Ringley says. “I looked out the window and saw my neighbor’s race car and just started making these little cars. And, ever since, building paper race cars has been the only constant in my life.”

Using Elmer’s carpenter glue and sometimes up to 70 sheets of paper, Ringley created miniature versions of the cars he watched at the local racetrack.

Ringley never used a ruler for door measurements or scales to determine how large he should make the tires in comparison to the rest of the vehicle; he built the paper cars by sight.

Over the years, he has perfected his technique and puts more emphasis on making the cars look realistic. For example, he now wraps the outside of his tires in a black foam material.

Ringley estimates he has made thousands of paper race cars throughout his life and has spent countless hours on the cars; some can take more than 12 hours to craft.

He has gifted the cars to race car drivers, such as Mario Andretti and Paul Newman, and has presented the paper vehicles at area car shows, such as the Concours d’Elegance car show in St. Petersburg earlier this year.

He never sold a car until earlier this year, when he received $75 for one. Ringley still can’t believe the attention he has received for his “little paper cars” and that individuals are willing to pay money for them.

“People get a kick out of these things,” Ringley says. “I’ve had people tell me I’m the only highly detailed paper-race car maker in the world. It’s an interesting thought to be the only person in the world to do something.”

In light of the positive response he has received over the years and requests for specific cars, Ringley now plans to make his hobby into a small business — Career Memories. He hopes to craft paper race cars on a per-request basis.

However, Ringley still views his quiet workstation as his getaway spot.

The space is where he creates art.

A former bass player and an impressionist-type artist whose paintings hang in his home beside those of his partner, Anne Corbett Brown, he needs an outlet to express himself.

“Being recognized all these years later for my paper race cars, and being interviewed about them — it’s just crazy,” Ringley says. “But, these cars, they’re my escape from reality.”