The Stock class was dominated by Defender Rally throughout the 2026 W2RC season, which began with the new outfit snapping Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body’s 12-year win streak at the Dakar Rally. Still, TLC was able to get the last laugh by winning the final stage at the Rallye du Maroc last month.

Both teams being the category’s best is not surprising as they have factory backing from Jaguar Land Rover and Toyota Motor Corporation. JLR has been especially committed to supporting Defender Rally, so much so that the team started comparing its pace to that of the Ultimate class.

While Defender vs. Toyota is the main Stock headline going into 2027, Péter Hamza is keen on playing spoiler with his Nissan Patrol.

Nissan hasn’t fielded a factory car at Dakar since the 2000s, though its presence can still be felt via engines like what the Dacia Sandrider uses. Of course, Tireman Racing (also called Tireman Dakar Team, though it uses the other moniker at Dakar due to brand restrictions) doesn’t have connections to the company. In fact, the five-person team had built the Patrol for the 2026 Dakar by cobbling together pieces from two wrecked Nissans.

Hamza and Majed Al-Thunayyan were the only non-factory Stock drivers in January’s Dakar as they took on the Defenders and Toyotas. Neither driver stood a chance as they finished in the bottom two with times that exceeded 200 hours. It’s absolutely not an indictment of their own abilities either as Al-Thunayyan went on to win this year’s FIA World Baja Cup in Stock, but they could only do so much against the factory monsters.

“We are competing against two huge factory teams, Defender and Toyota, with extremely experienced, multiple Dakar-winning drivers,” Hamza told Terep-Rallye.com, the official website of Hungary’s national championship. “This year, however, we are starting with a full racing team, more thorough preparation, a proper racing truck and a much better background. We hope that we can pull their hair out a bit.

“We changed the car a lot. It’s two to three hundred kilograms lighter, which is a lot for this car. Our chassis is also better, and thanks to a new sponsor we have much more options for modifying and replacing the shock absorbers. Compared to the factory teams, it is still a disadvantage that we don’t have an unlimited budget, but at the same time, more and more sponsors are helping us, and we are lucky that we can improve year after year and be at the Dakar again.”

He will run this weekend’s Hungarian Baja to gauge the upgraded Patrol’s capabilities. With the baja being postponed from August to November, it gave him time to test the car ahead of Dakar that he didn’t have had it proceeded in its original slot.

While beating either team on raw pace is going to be tough, Hamza knows the Dakar is an endurance rally that can easily take even the best car out if something goes wrong. Heck, the fact that Tireman is such a modest operation could work to his advantage too.

“Our opponents are extremely experienced and have a very solid background, but they are not necessarily as familiar with on-site repairs,” he added. “In the event of a breakdown, they may have to wait for the service truck, and we want to resolve such situations as quickly as possible.

“This is not a sprint race, nor is it a shorter domestic race, the car has to work for a very long time here. You have to compete, you have to progress, but you don’t have to win a stage, you have to be there at the end. It’s no use being very fast for two days if you smash the car in the process.”

2027 will be Hamza’s third Dakar. In 2025, he raced a Mitsubishi Pajero to a 60th-place finish at the Dakar Classic. Both entries came under the Tireman banner. Tireman also plans to lease out other cars built for future Dakars.

Featured image credit: Tireman Dakar Team