Bell Sweeps to Indy Lights Win

Townsend Bell, expected to be racing in a Champ car next season, held off Dan Wheldon to win his first race on a superspeedway, the 50-lap Dayton Indy Lights 100, and put an exclamation point on his championship season.

Bell, 26, from San San Luis Obispo, pocketed $37,501, the largest purse in the spec series’ history, including a $10,000 rollover for the Simple Green Bonus for winning the race, in addition to winning the pole and leading the most laps.

He was awarded the maximum 22 points for a race for the fifth time. He averaged 182.334 mph and won by 0.051 seconds over Wheldon, his sixth victory in 12 races.

Bell clinched the series title after winning the last race, at Laguna Seca, and is the first American champion since Bryan Herta in 1993. Last season’s rookie of the year and second to Scott Dixon, Bell scored 193 points, followed by Wheldon at 149.

Wheldon, an Englishman who moved from Newport Beach, Calif., to Indianapolis last year, has now been rookie of the year three consecutive years--in U.S. Formula 2000, Toyota Atlantics and Indy Lights, a series which will be discontinued. He spent almost the entire 50 laps with the nose of his Lola under Bell’s rear wing, and said he touched Bell’s Dorricott Racing entry four times.

Wheldon’s attempt at victory fell short by less than a car length. “We looked at the data over the weekend, and with the draft, we could get up to 3 mph more,” Wheldon said. “I thought that, with the banking, would carry me through.”

Wheldon’s move started on the backstretch of the last lap, but going to the outside he only reached Bell’s rear wheel at the finish line.

They finished more than 17 seconds ahead of third-place Matt Halliday, who had less than a nose-cone advantage over fourth-place Derek Higgins and fifth-place Mario Dominguez in the 10-car field.

They were separated by 0.007 of a second.