Townsend Bell

Townsend Bell
Townsend Bell at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2006.
Nationality	American
Indy Racing League IndyCar Series career
Debut season	2004
Current team	Sam Schmidt Motorsports
Car number	99
Former teams	Panther Racing Vision Racing Dreyer & Reinbold Racing KV Racing Technology
Starts	20
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 is married to actress Heather Campbell.

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 Racing as a test for a full-time seat in 2002. He earned Roberto Moreno's seat at Patrick that year. His results were mixed; scoring a best finish of 4th but was dropped midseason for Oriol Servia after being placed on probation for avoidable contact with Bruno Junqueira.

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 returned to the IndyCar Series in 2008 driving the #23 car in events where Milka Duno was not scheduled to race. His best result 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.

In 2009, Bell was entered in the Indy 500 by KV Racing Technology. Despite qualifying 24th, by virtue of a limited-month schedule, he raced his way into the top 5. Passing Team Penske's Will Power on the last restart, Bell impressed with a 4th place finish.

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.

He will return to the Indy 500 in 2010 Indianapolis 500 racing for Sam Schmidt Motorsports.

Racing record

Complete International Formula 3000 results

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

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	DC	Points
2003	Arden International	IMO 9	CAT 12	A1R 7	MON 6	NUR Ret	MAG 12	SIL 7	HOC 5	HUN 3	MNZ Ret	9th	17

American Open Wheel Racing

(key)

CART

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	Rank	Points
2001	Patrick	MTY	LBH	TXS	NZR	MOT	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	TOR	MIS	CHI	MDO	ROA	VAN	LSZ 13	ROC 12	HOU	LS	SRF	FON	30th	1
2002	Patrick	MTY 19	LBH 15	MOT 14	MIL 13	LS 7	POR 4	CHI 12	TOR DSQ	CLE 18	VAN	MDO	ROA	MTL	DEN	ROC	MIA	SRF	FON	MXC			20th	19

IRL IndyCar Series

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 21	PPIR 12	NZR 18	CHI 22	FON 9	TX2 9				21st	193
2005	Panther	HMS	PHX	STP	MOT	INDY	TXS	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIL	MIS 15	KTY	PPIR	SNM	CHI	WGL	FON			31st	15
2006	Vision	HMS	STP	MOT	INDY 22	WGL	TXS	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIL	MIS	KTY	SNM	CHI						34th	12
2008	Dreyer & Reinbold	HMS	STP 21	MOT1 10	LBH1 DNP	KAN DNP	INDY 10	MIL 11	TXS	IOW	RIR 8	WGL	NSH	MDO	EDM 25	KTY	SNM 19	DET	CHI	SRF2 23	26th	117
2009	KV	STP	LBH	KAN	INDY 4	MIL	TXS	IOW	RIR	WGL	TOR	EDM	KTY	MDO	SNM	CHI	MOT	HMS			32nd	32
2010	Sam Schmidt	SAO	STP	ALA	LBH	KAN	INDY 16	TXS	IOW	WGL	TOR	EDM	MDO	SNM	CHI	KTY	MOT	HMS			33rd*	18*

* 2010 season in progress

¹ Run on same day.

² Non-points race.

Years	Teams	Races	Poles	Wins	Podiums (Non-win)	Top 10s (Non-podium)	Indianapolis 500 Wins	Championships
6	5	22	0	0	0	9	0	0

Indianapolis 500 results

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish	Team	Note
2006	Dallara	Honda	15	22	Vision	Suspension
2008	Dallara	Honda	12	10	D & R	Completed every lap
2009	Dallara	Honda	24	4	KVRT	Ties career best in 2002 at Portland
2010	Dallara	Honda	10	16	Sam Schmidt

External links

• Townsend Bell Interview