RICHARD Hammond's high-speed crash and subsequent helicopter rescue has sparked an astonishing fundraising drive for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

Now the service is using the money - which stood yesterday at more than £200,000 - to launch a new £1.5 million appeal to buy a second helicopter.

The chopper could be dubbed the "Hammi- Copter" after the Top Gear presenter, who might also be asked at a later stage to become the service's patron.

Air Ambulance chief executive Martin Eede, announcing the new appeal, said the service had been out to ten more incidents since Mr Hammond's 280mph crash in a Vampire dragster at Elvington Airfield last week.

Mr Eedes revealed that on Saturday afternoon, the helicopter went out to four incidents - including a fatal smash on the A64 near York - but was so busy dealing with them that it could not respond when another call for help came in.

"We simply couldn't attend the fifth job," he said.

"This graphically illustrates the importance of the service acquiring a second helicopter."

He said the second helicopter would be based at Barnsley in winter, but at a new base in the Malton area in the summer, when there were many call-outs to incidents on the coast and the North York Moors.

Mr Eedes said the appeal launched by fans after the Elvington crash had been sent donations from all over the world and, because of Gift Aid, the total passed the £200,000 mark by yesterday morning.

He said the air ambulance's website, which was normally visited just over 5,000 times a day, had received 157,000 "hits" on Saturday, and was now running at almost 10,000 an hour. More people were visiting the site from America than Britain and the story was getting international as well as national coverage.

The service would now start looking at possible helicopters to buy, and he hoped a second craft could be in service sometime in 2007.

Meanwhile, he said the service was still looking to move its headquarters to a new base in the Tockwith area, and was set to submit a planning application to Harrogate Borough Council later this year.