Townsend Bell

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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 midway through 2004. He started one race as an injury replacement for Tomas Enge in the same car in 2005. He made his first Indianapolis 500 appearance for Vision Racing in 2006, qualifying 15th and finishing 22nd.