Townsend Bell

Infobox racing driver
name = Townsend Bell


pixels =
caption = Townsend practicing for the 2006 Indianapolis 500
nationality = USA
date of birth = Birth date and age|1975|4|19
place of birth = San Francisco, California
date of death =
retired =
related to =
current series = Indy Racing League IndyCar Series
current team = Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
car number = 23
first year = 2004
former teams = Panther Racing
Vision Racing
starts = 19
wins = 0
poles = 0
fastest laps =
best finish = 21st
year = 2004
prev series = Formula 3000
CART World Series
Indy Lights
Barber Dodge Pro Series
prev series years = 2003
2001-2002
2000-2001
1999
titles = Indy Lights
title years = 2001
awards =
award years =

Townsend Bell (born April 19, 1975 in San Francisco) is a motor racing driver.

He won the last Indy Lights championship in 2001 and was given two starts in a Champ Car in a joint effort between Patrick Racing and Dale Coyne as a test for a full-time seat in 2002. He earned Roberto Moreno's seat at Patrick that year and while much was expected, he underachieved scoring a best finish of 4th before he was dropped midseason for Oriol Servia.

His efforts shifted to Europe and in 2003 he was team mate to series champion Björn Wirdheim in International F3000 competition. Bell's moment of glory came with a podium at the Hungaroring and he finished 9th overall in a field covered with future Formula One talent, Wirdheim, Giorgio Pantano, Patrick Friesacher, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Nicolas Kiesa among them. Despite earning a test with British American Racing at year's end, Bell returned to America where he replaced Mark Taylor for Panther Racing in the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series midway through 2004. He started one race as an injury replacement for Tomáš Enge in the same car in 2005. He made his first Indianapolis 500 appearance for Vision Racing in 2006, qualifying 15th and finishing 22nd. He will return to the IndyCar Series in 2008 driving the #23 car in events where Milka Duno is not scheduled to race. His best result so far in 2008 was an eighth place finish at Richmond International Raceway in June. He also was entered in a third team car in the Indy 500, where he qualified twelfth and finished tenth.

He has also substituted for David Hobbs on Speed TV's Formula One broadcast team when Hobbs was out due to the death of a family member.

Racing record

Complete Formula 3000 results

() (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in "italics" indicate fastest lap.)

External links