ONE SHOT - All against Nieto!

After the conquest of two titles, 1969 and 1970, in 50cc by Angel Nieto, in 1971 the Team VAN VEEN KREIDLER was strongly committed to facing the hegemony of the Spaniard and the DERBI that he crewed. The departure for JAMATHI, at the end of the previous season, of the pilot Aalt Toersen, made the Dutch team bet on Jan de Vries and Jos Schurgers as spearheads for the execution of the difficult task. In the middle of the season the championship was very balanced between Nieto and de Vries. Big ills, big remedies, Henk van Veen hired two strong reinforcements, Barry Sheene and Jarno Saarinen, to support de Vries' crusade. The strategy worked and, at the end of the season, Jan de Vries became the 50cc World Champion, although DERBI also reinforced the team in the last and decisive GP of the season, in Spain. Barry Sheene won at the Czechoslovak GP where de Vries withdrew due to a malfunction and Jarno Saarinen also fulfilled the role of squire assigned to him with distinction, serving several times as a buffer for the competition. Pictured, from left to right: Jos Schurgers, Jan de Vries, Barry Sheene and Jarno Saarinen.

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