Dirt

A tight community of dirt track racers got behind the wheel Thursday night for a much bigger and more important purpose. Thursday marked the second annual “Chad McDaniel Memorial Race” held at the Solomon Valley Raceway in Beloit. McDaniel had racing in his blood according to his family. The Concordia native died in a race car accident a few years back in Iowa. Dirt track drivers from all over the nation gathered to take part in Thursday's memorial race...the Solomon Valley track was said to be Chad's favorite place to do what he loved most.

Six-hundred tons of Kansas dirt now covers the Intrust Bank Arena floor, at a cost of $10,000. (But the event pays the cost, not the taxpayers.) It's all part of preparing for the professional bull riding event there this weekend. Meaning cowboys make their return to downtown Wichita. Less than four months since its unveiling, and the new begins to wear off. 60 truckloads of dirt can do that to a place. You can blame Clayton Cullen for the mess.

A dirty job on the floor of Wichita's Intrust Bank Arena Thursday as crews trucked in more than 800 tons of dirt. The dirt is being spread across more than 17,000 square feet for the Professional Bull Riding, or PBR, event this weekend. The dirt on the floor will be at least eight inches thick. It took 50 trucks to haul all the dirt inside. The PBR show is set for Friday, Sept. 23, at 8:00 p.m. and Saturday, Sept. 24, at 7:00 p.m. Tickets start at $12. Get tickets through Select-A-Seat at www.selectaseat.com or by calling (316)

Ryan Kelley is used to using his gas-powered power washer to blast away dirt on houses. It’s all part of the prep-work for his business, Integrity Painting. But today we handing him something else: the Water Jet Power Washer. The $20 attachment fits on your garden hose and is supposed to turn it into a “power washer.”  The claim: extra power for washing everything from your car to your boat. That includes those high areas on the outside of homes you can’t normally reach.

It's a beautiful Fall in Wichita. The leaves. The color. The gutters. All those wet leaves and sticks and dirt can plug up them up.  That can create a big problem unless you climb up and clean them out. Or get a robot to do it for you. The $70 iRobot Looj is small enough run back and forth inside the gutters, as long you have at least 2 1/4 inches of clearance under your brackets.  On the front of the device:  rubber...

by Kim Setty It's the Swivel Sweeper: something of a cross between a hand-held vacuum and an upright.  Lots of you have asked for it, so we had KFDI's Kellie and Brian test it in their home. Their results: It picked up small spills, such as dry food.  It was easy to assemble. However, if it flips over while it's on, all the dirt inside it spews across the floor. And it doesn't have as much power as Brian would have liked. Click to the left if you'd like to see video of our story.

It's a journey that started when Clint Bowyer was just a kid, racing motocross in dirt tracks in Kansas and these days has him racing four wheels on America's biggest racing stage, NASCAR. “To look back and see how it all unfolded it's really unbelievable,” Bowyer says. Unbelievable because as a kid growing up, Bowyer was just your average kid, but with a love of racing that was pretty hard to ignore. “You don't see a lot of kids that are focused on doing a singular thing like that," says Steve Turner who taught Clint Bowyer American History at Emporia High School.

It looks like that toy gel from the past, Gak. And it's fun to play with. But this week's Does It Work product says it's more than that. Cyber Clean says it's a way to clean hard-to-reach areas---like the spaces in your computer keyboard and your TV remote.  Just press on the "elastic gel" and it's supposed to pull away all that dirt.  Our first tester, Tammy, tries it out on both her lamp and the remote next to her. But when she presses it on and pulls it off, she still sees dust left behind.

by Kara Sewell (RENO COUNTY, Kan.) Road signs are meant to be followed. Barricades block South Halstead, in Reno County. Last weekend, one driver decided to ignore not one or two but all three. "The guy drove his pickup right down this road, which is not really a road," says David McComb. Halfway through bridge construction, the road is really piles of dirt, concrete and metal support rods. So, the driver's pickup got stuck. Instead of calling for help.

by Alana Rocha (WICHITA, Kan.) The Butler County Sheriff is calling Wednesday's findings in the Adam Herrman case, 'trash.' But says, they still may be significant. An anthropologist from Wichita State spent the day on the scene assisting authorities in the search. What type of evidence, forensic or otherwise, would still be around after ten years? An out of state tip takes Butler County Sheriff's investigators back to the shed near the family's old mobile home Wednesday.

There is always something comfortable and familiar about returning home. And although Clint Bowyer had never raced the Rolling Plains Speedway in Hays before Tuesday night, returning to the dirt tracks in his home state of Kansas, was still like a homecoming. "It's what we grew up doing," said Bowyer. "It's always fun to come back an revisit how you grew up, you know. It me I'm like a kid in a candy store. " Ken Schrader agrees. Though he is from Missouri, not from Kansas, he first visited RPM three years ago. And he jumped at the chance to return to his Midwestern dirt track roots.

After every rain storm, Wichita crews head out to the city's dirt roads to fix potholes and ruts. There's 170 miles of dirt roads crews take care of. After each storm, officials say crews have about five days to grade the roads before they dry out. When that happens, the roads become too dusty and crews need to spray water down. Currently, the city has eight crews grading the dirt roads. They hope to have all 170 miles of roads grated and flattened by the end of the week. Wichita crews are working to grade dirt roads

A teenager is recovering after crashing his bike in the big ditch Tuesday. Wichita police say three boys were riding dirt bikes in the big ditch.  One of the riders wasn't as familiar with the area.  The 14-year-old rode into a concrete culvert and landed on his head. Police say the teen was wearing a helmet, but it fell off before impact. The victim suffered a skull fracture and internal injuries.    

A dirty job on the floor of Wichita's Intrust Bank Arena Thursday as crews trucked in more than 800 tons of dirt. The dirt is being spread across more than 17,000 square feet for the Professional Bull Riding, or PBR, event this weekend. The dirt on the floor will be at least eight inches thick. It took 50 trucks to haul all the dirt inside. The PBR show is set for Friday, Sept. 23, at 8:00 p.m. and Saturday, Sept. 24, at 7:00 p.m. Tickets start at $12. Get tickets through Select-A-Seat at www.selectaseat.com or by calling (316)

A tight community of dirt track racers got behind the wheel Thursday night for a much bigger and more important purpose. Thursday marked the second annual “Chad McDaniel Memorial Race” held at the Solomon Valley Raceway in Beloit. McDaniel had racing in his blood according to his family. The Concordia native died in a race car accident a few years back in Iowa. Dirt track drivers from all over the nation gathered to take part in Thursday's memorial race...the Solomon Valley track was said to be Chad's favorite place to do what he loved most.

It's a journey that started when Clint Bowyer was just a kid, racing motocross in dirt tracks in Kansas and these days has him racing four wheels on America's biggest racing stage, NASCAR. “To look back and see how it all unfolded it's really unbelievable,” Bowyer says. Unbelievable because as a kid growing up, Bowyer was just your average kid, but with a love of racing that was pretty hard to ignore. “You don't see a lot of kids that are focused on doing a singular thing like that," says Steve Turner who taught Clint Bowyer American History at Emporia High School.

The last thing any racecar driver wants to be called is “dirty,” but they’ll make an exception to this rule on Wednesday, June 8 when the most celebrated dirt track in all of motorsports hosts the Prelude to the Dream. Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, will once again be the site of the all-star dirt Late Model race featuring more than 25 world renowned drivers as they battle for dirt supremacy on the half-mile clay oval, all of which will be presented live to the entire nation on HBO Pay-Per-View® with proceeds from the telecast supporting four of the nation’s top children’s hospitals: Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte, N.C. Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta St. Louis Children’s Hospital Children’s Medical Center Dallas The seventh annual event will feature stars from the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, NASCAR Nationwide Series, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.

Ryan Kelley is used to using his gas-powered power washer to blast away dirt on houses. It’s all part of the prep-work for his business, Integrity Painting. But today we handing him something else: the Water Jet Power Washer. The $20 attachment fits on your garden hose and is supposed to turn it into a “power washer.”  The claim: extra power for washing everything from your car to your boat. That includes those high areas on the outside of homes you can’t normally reach.

Six-hundred tons of Kansas dirt now covers the Intrust Bank Arena floor, at a cost of $10,000. (But the event pays the cost, not the taxpayers.) It's all part of preparing for the professional bull riding event there this weekend. Meaning cowboys make their return to downtown Wichita. Less than four months since its unveiling, and the new begins to wear off. 60 truckloads of dirt can do that to a place. You can blame Clayton Cullen for the mess.

It looks like that toy gel from the past, Gak. And it's fun to play with. But this week's Does It Work product says it's more than that. Cyber Clean says it's a way to clean hard-to-reach areas---like the spaces in your computer keyboard and your TV remote.  Just press on the "elastic gel" and it's supposed to pull away all that dirt.  Our first tester, Tammy, tries it out on both her lamp and the remote next to her. But when she presses it on and pulls it off, she still sees dust left behind.