Townsend Bell

Who is Townsend Bell?

Townsend Bell is a motor racing driver and analyst. 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. Bell's best Indy 500 finish to date is his 4th place showing the following year (2009).

More recently, Bell has enjoyed success in sports cars, taking home the 2015 IMSA GT Daytona Championship with co-driver Bill Sweedler. He performed admirably in the 12 Hours of Sebring and 24 Hours of Le Mans that year as well. In 2016, Bell won the 24 Hours of Le Mans with teammates Jeff Segal and Bill Sweedler in only their second try. Since then, he has been a competitor in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GT Daytona class - most recently in the AIM Vasser-Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 for the 2019 & 2020 seasons.

Bell can also be seen and heard in his Indycar color-commentating role on NBC, USA and streaming on Peacock.