Townsend Bell
Townsend practicing for the 2006 Indianapolis 500
Nationality	United States
Date of Birth	April 19, 1975 (1975-04-19) (age 33)
Place of Birth	San Francisco, California
2008 Indy Racing League IndyCar Series
Debut season	2004
Current team	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
Car No.	23
Former teams	Panther Racing Vision Racing
Starts	19
Wins	0
Poles	0
Best finish	21st in 2004
Previous series
2003 2001-2002 2000-2001 1999	Formula 3000 CART World Series Indy Lights Barber Dodge Pro Series
Championship titles
2001	Indy Lights

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

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

American Open Wheel Racing

CART Champ Car

IRL IndyCar Series

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Rank	Points
2004	Panther	HMS	PHX	MOT	INDY	TXS	RIR	KAN 17	NSH 5	MIL 6	MIS 8	KTY Ret	PPIR 12	NZR Ret	CHI Ret	FON 9	TX2 9				21st	193
2005	Panther	HMS	PHX	STP	MOT	INDY	TXS	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIL	MIS Ret	KTY	PPIR	SNM	CHI	WGL	FON			31st	15
2006	Vision	HMS	STP	MOT	INDY Ret	WGL	TXS	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIL	MIS	KTY	SNM	CHI						34th	12
2008	Dreyer & Reinbold	HMS	STP Ret	MOT1 10	LBH1 DNP	KAN DNP	INDY 10	MIL 11	TXS	IOW	RIR 8	WGL	NSH	MDO	EDM Ret	KTY	SNM 19	DET	CHI	SRF	26th	117

* 2008 season in progress.

¹ Run on same day.

² Non-points-paying, exhibition race.

External links

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Townsend Bell

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