Up-and-coming race star engaged to Hamilton Heights graduate
By RICHIE HALL
Two young people from small towns meet in the big city and fall in love.
It sounds like a romantic comedy movie, but two years ago, it became real life for Cicero’s Molly Mitchell and race car driver Sting Ray Robb, who competed in his second Indianapolis 500 on Sunday.
Robb made a remarkable jump in only his second appearance at Indy. He finished 31st last year in his rookie race, with his day ending early. But in 2024, Robb found himself pacing the race. He led 23 laps, the third most of any driver on Sunday. The only competitors with more where polesitter Scott McLaughlin (66) and race winner Josef Newgarden (26).
“I couldn’t have asked much more,” said Robb after the race. He credited his team with calling a great strategy that saw him lead and keep up with the top drivers during the race.
“Proud is a word I’d use to describe the day,” said Robb.
Among the people congratulating Robb after the race was Mitchell and her family. The two of them met a couple of years ago when they were both living in nearby apartments in downtown Indianapolis.
Mitchell
Robb, who was born and raised in Idaho, moved into an apartment in downtown Indianapolis with his roommate Stafford, another Idaho native. They did not have much of a social life for the first two months – “We would just go to and from races and that was it,” said Robb. “We didn’t have anything else to do in the meantime.”
One night, Robb and Stafford saw Mitchell and her roommate leave their apartment to go to a concert.
“And we said, ‘Oh, no way, friends! Like, finally someone,’” said Robb.
A few days later, Robb and Stafford went to Mitchell’s apartment and decided to knock on the door.
“We were the two creepy neighbors that showed up at Molly’s front door,” said Robb. “But it turned out for the best.”
Mitchell, a 2016 Hamilton Heights graduate, moved to downtown Indy from Cicero, which she admitted made some of her friends and family nervous.
“It’s not generally super unsafe, but every once in a while something happens down in the canal,” said Mitchell.
Still, she was apprehensive when Robb and Stafford knocked on her door one night.
“I didn’t answer at first because I was nervous, because the door goes out to a path that walks down to the canal,” said Mitchell. The two men knocked on the door louder, “like more aggressively, and now I’m like ‘Oh, no.’
“So naturally, I open it, just because I’m curious enough. And there’s two men I’ve never seen before which is arguably worst-case scenario. But it’s Stafford and Sting Ray. Of course, they’re the sweetest guys ever. But at that time, I didn’t know that.”
That initial meeting was not a success – “They knew it was a bad interaction,” said Mitchell. But a couple days later, the group was outside at the same time with a mutual friend.
“It was like, ‘Oh, have you guys met each other? These guys are great,’” said Mitchell. “Reintroduced us, vouched for the guys. Felt a little bit safer and ended up hanging out with them that night. And from that point on, we made a lot of dinners together, had a lot of nights where we’d sip tea and watch a show.”
By that point, Mitchell said the foursome was “inseparable.” Robb and Mitchell were friends for about a year before they started dating, which Mitchell said was “awesome.”
“We weren’t necessarily pursuing each other or trying to impress one another,” said Mitchell. “So it was really awesome just to see him in his natural setting. Just being his friend was really great for us and allowed us to grow to really care about each other even before we were dating.”
Once the couple began dating, Mitchell said it wasn’t long before the two realized they wanted to get married. They were engaged in January of this year, with the wedding to come in November.
“They love what I do and they also have that faith, that purpose side,” said Robb of Mitchell and her family.
Robb, 22, was named after the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray car and has been racing since a young age. He made his first big impact when he won the 2020 Indy Pro 2000 Championship, claiming seven individual races on his way to the title. He moved to Indy Lights (now INDY NXT) for the next two years, placing second in the overall championship race in 2022.
Robb moved over to INDYCAR in 2023. His 16th-place finish at the 2024 Indy 500 tied his second-best finish in a race; he took 12th at the season-ending Laguna Seca race in 2023.
Sting Ray is on the rise, and he’s already looking forward to next year.
“Absolutely,” he said. “I think that’s the most fun we’ve had on an oval to date. All the glory goes to God.” Robb called the race “a big confidence booster, and I’m just so thankful.”