Leeton's Noah Sands has finished the year in strong fashion with a solid performance in Adelaide

After qualifying 10^th in the 16-car field, Sands continued to improve across the weekend finishing ninth in race one, seventh in race two and finishing the weekend with a strong fifth place finish in the 14-lap feature race.

Sands was happy with the performance with the 2022 Australian Formula 3 champion gaining a lot of confidence from the event.

"Yeah it went pretty well," Sands said.

"There was a few experienced guys in the field, so it was all building confidence and in the last race we had a good result."

One of the experienced drivers in the field was Giancarlo Fisichella, with Sands pleased that he was able to finish ahead of the former Formula 1 Grand Prix winner in the feature race.

"It was good and I started to pull away from him," he said.

"I saw him in my mirrors and I thought he might be quick, but he wasn't that quick to be honest.

"It was good to beat him fair and square."

The Adelaide street circuit is one of the trickiest circuits which the S5000 series visits with Sands pretty happy with how he adapted to the track given it was the first time he had raced there.

"I adapted pretty quickly," he said.

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"I had a few teammates to learn from that have quite a vast experience and I got up to speed quite quickly.

"By the end of it we were on the money, so I'm pretty happy with it."

After getting a taste of the S5000 series, Sands is now hoping to compete in the category full-time next year with Garry Rogers Motorsport as he continues his rise up the motorsport ladder.

"S5000 is definitely the plan for next year," he said.

"It's probably the most natural progression for me and it's still open wheel.

"So that's the plan and the hope is to go for the title next year in S5000."

Sands has enjoyed a successful year on track with him pretty happy with how he performed in both Formula 3 and S5000.

"It was probably my most successful year to date," he said.

"I was pretty dominant all year in F3 and won five of the six rounds then had some solid results in S5000 which was a good way to end the year.

"I'm pretty happy with the year."

While the Formula 3 and S5000 cars may look similar, Sands said there was a vast difference in the way to drive and get the most out of both cars.

"The F3 car has a lot more downforce and it's a lot more like a Formula 1 car," he said.

"Whereas the S5000 car is a lot more like a V8 Supercar and it is a lot more heavier and there is a lot more weight towards the rear with not much weight at the front, so it is very hard to get into the corner initially.

"The F3 you can really push the car into the corner whereas the S5000 you have to be more patient on the throttle and through the corners.

"Adapting between the two cars was a bit of challenge, but it was pretty fun."

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