More than �20,000 has been raised for charity by car enthusiasts who attended a special track day at Snetterton Circuit.

About 2,000 people visited the event on Saturday which gave petrol-heads the rare chance to take a spin around the track in a grand selection of about 170 top racing and classic cars.

Lucky visitors were also offered passenger laps in a new Lotus Evora courtesy of the Lotus Driving Academy.

The day was organised to raise money for The Ronald McDonald Houses Charities (RHMC) which provides free accommodation in or close to hospitals and hospices throughout the UK so families of seriously ill children can stay together while their child is being treated.

Kevin Foley, who runs two McDonalds franchises in Norwich, and Devin Grosse, general manager of the Holiday Inn Norwich-North, teamed up with other businesses and racing enthusiasts to organise the event.

Mr Foley said his hope is to raise enough money to have a home built at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.

'My aim to try and get one built here. The issue is funding and finding a site near the hospital but if I can help raise the image of the RHMC in Norwich and raise some of the funds then we will be that much closer,' he said.

He said the idea for the track day came from a discussion of charity efforts on business network LinkedIn.

'Historically if you wanted to get involved with the charity you did a dinner of a golf day. Well I'm a bit of a petrol-head and I'm not much of a golfer so it was a case of trying to find something that combined a love of cars with raising money,' he added.

Mr Foley said the event's success has encouraged the organisers to bring back the track day next year.

He said: 'We were hoping to clear �6,000 to �7,000 but to raise that amount of money on the first event has given us a boost to make sure we make it happen next year and make it bigger and better.'