27/3/1945
Record updated 26-Mar-07
Garcia Veiga was an Argentine racing driver who started racing in 1967 driving both in Turismo Nacional and Turismo Carretera. He also raced in the local F1 series and in sports car races. In 1974 he moved to the USA to drive in F5000. He then returned to Turismo Nacional Series and remained active until his retirement in 1986.
Nestor Jesus Garcia Veiga was from Arrecifes in Argentina where some of the countries most famous drivers were born, including José Froilan Gonzalez, Norberto Fontana and the Di Palma racing family.
Nestor started racing in 1967, driving both in local series, Turismo Nacional and the very famous Turismo Carretera championship. His first appearance in single seaters was at the F2 GP of Argentina in 1968 where he failed to qualify.
In the Turismo Carretera championship, he drove some cars that were the property of Carlos Pairetti, with names like Liebre ("Hare") 1.5, with a Torino chassis, Trueno Naranja ("Orange Thunder"), with a Chevrolet chassis and Barracuda.
In 1969 he upgraded to a series called Mecánica Argentina F1 and made his first excursions into sports cars, starting to win races. His first win came October 1969, at Rafaela (Santa Fe), taking a round of the MAF1 series. A couple of days later he won again at El Zonda (San Juan) driving one of the Chelco-Chevrolet prototypes.
Driving these cars he had an exceptional 1970 season, winning eight times and obtaining up to eleven podium finishes over 17 races. He was then invited to participate in the Buenos Aires 1000kms race sharing a Lola-Chevrolet with Teddy Pilette. They had a good race, finishing in fourth place.
Garcia Veiga again raced the Buenos Aires 1000kms in 1971, which was now part of the WC, this time sharing a NART-entered Ferrari 512 with another local hero, Rubén Luis Di Palma, and a third driver, well-known sometime F1 driver Sam Posey. They finished in eight place. With poor Ignacio Giunti killed in that race, Garcia Veiga was called in by Scuderia Ferrari to drive one of their cars in the Daytona 24 Hours. He was originally entered to share 512M with Sam Posey but that machine was then blackflagged. Veiga then jumped into NART's 312P to share with Luigi Chinetti Jr, and they finished in a very creditable 4th place.
After that, he returned to drive in the Turismo Carretera series, winning two races at Vuelta de Pergamino and Vuelta de Salta, before going on to the MAF1 Championship in 1973, taking five wins in the process, while also sharing a Ferrari 365 with Rubén Luis di Palma at the Le Mans 24 Hours, leading their class for 19 hours before retiring.
Come 1974 and Nestor Garcia Veiga relocated to the USA, again with the Mir organisation, to drive in the F5000 series. Mir's F5000 team wasn't going places with its usual Eagle-Chevy and Nestor inspired the team to try and build a car on their own. The car was designed by Oreste Berta and failed to make any impression, leaving its driver and the nation empty-handed.
The car never actually raced after being tested at Riverside, and Veiga left Mir's team after two rounds in the ill-handling Eagle-Chevy to join the Negri-Tinarelli team, driving a Lola T330 in the final two rounds of the 1974 championship.
Nestor could have been the only driver to have driven a 100% Argentinian Grand Prix Team. In December 74, Veiga carried out the first tests of the Berta F1 with a Berta engine. Unfortunately, the engine was heavy, not very reliable and especially not very powerful. In spite of the attempts to improve it, the engine was still not ready for the first GP of the year. It was therefore withdrawn before the Argentine Grand prix, not even featuring on the entry lists.
After the F1 debacle, Garcia Veiga decided to keep on racing in the Turismo Nacional Series, driving for several works teams, and he won quite a number of races up to 1981. In 1982 he joined the Argentine Drivers Championship where he remained active until his retirement in 1986.
Forix.com