The NTT IndyCar SERIES paddock is a tight-knit machine, and that collaborative spirit just helped build an Olympic-grade skeleton sled in a single week.
Mystique Ro, a 31-year-old from Nokesville, Virginia, found herself in a tight spot right before the IBSF Skeleton World Cup season opened. While trying to customize her equipment with teammates, scheduling conflicts with an outside company left her without a properly fitted, competition-ready sled.
Theoretically, if all goes well, then this sled will be in the (Olympic) Games for sure.
That is when the racing community stepped in. A friend pointed her toward Cara Krstolic, Firestone Racing’s Executive Director of Race Tire Engineering and Production, who immediately knew how to help. Krstolic connected Ro with Nick Snyder, Performance Director at Arrow McLaren, alongside a design engineer at Dallara.
Arrow McLaren and Dallara volunteered their time to design and manufacture a brand-new carbon-fiber sled in just one week. For Dallara, the exclusive IndyCar SERIES chassis supplier, the project adds a wild new entry to a résumé that already boasts 397 series race wins entering 2026.
“It was a combination of effort from everyone,” Ro said. “It was exactly what we asked for. They went above and beyond, cutting holes for the post, making sure the shape and height were right. It looks great.”
The result is a stiffer, more responsive machine that abandons the noticeable flexibility of her original setup. Ro took lessons learned from a pod built two years ago and applied them to the new build, describing the finished product as visually edgy and more angular.
Ro is no stranger to top-tier competition, having secured individual silver and mixed team gold at the 2025 World Championships in Lake Placid. She is currently competing on the World Cup circuit—which opened Nov. 21 at the Cortina Sliding Centre, stopped in Igls, Austria, on Nov. 29, and heads to Lillehammer, Norway, on Dec. 13—as she chases a spot on the 2026 U.S. Olympic Team for the Winter Games in Italy, scheduled for Feb. 6-22.
She even draws a direct line between motorsport and sliding, noting that skeleton athletes pull over five G-forces through corners and rely on the same precision, quick reflexes, and vision required of NTT IndyCar SERIES drivers. By studying racing terminology and driver training techniques, she enhances her own visualization on the ice.
“I still have to qualify, but I’ve been riding this sled and breaking it in,” Ro said. “Theoretically, if all goes well, then this sled will be in the (Olympic) Games for sure.”
