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 returned to the Indianapolis 500 in 2011, racing for Sam Schmidt Motorsports, qualified 4th fastest, and will start the 100th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing on the inside of the second row.
Bell finished 9th in the 2012 Indianapolis 500 with Sam Schmidt Motorsports.
Townsend is also driving a Lotus Evora GTE for Alex Job Racing in the American Le Mans Series with Bill Sweedler and he is a color commontator for NBC Sports with Wally Dallenbach, Jr. and Leigh Diffey.
Famous quotes containing the words townsend and/or bell:
“Dizzily down the abyss he wheels—
So fell Darius. Upon his crown,
In the midst of the barn-yard he came down,
In a wonderful whirl of tangled strings,
Broken braces and broken springs,
Broken tail and broken wings,”
—John Townsend Trowbridge (1827–1916)
“Those feelings of envy are familiar to many of us. We see our children accomplishing things that we’ve always been afraid to try, or we give them opportunities that we never had, and we find ourselves feeling jealousy mixed with our pride, or we feel resentful when they take it all for granted.”
—Ruth Davidson Bell (20th century)