The Cornfield 500 started out a decade ago with some buddies getting together for what Pennsylvania pumper Blair Miller calls a “junk fest of racing.” It has evolved into an annual Labor Day weekend event that draws more than 5,500 people to Miller’s Warren County farm.

This September celebration of all things vehicular is the culmination of Miller’s after-hours efforts throughout the year. It has grown to include a full day of racing on a quarter mile dirt track with cars, pickups, vans and motorcycles. There are freestyle demonstrations from motocross, monster trucks and super-buggies. The 2009 schedule included a Short-Course Off-Road Racing (SCORR) Truck Series points competition. Another highlight of the weekend was a 50-lap enduro race that paid $2,000 in prize money.

But the fun isn’t all on the track. About 100 RVs and 50 tents populated a field near the track on Friday night, and a pre-registration party with live music was held in the barn, giving campers “a chance to get to know each other,” says Miller’s wife and business partner Sabrena.

BIG REDNECK WEDDING

If Blair and Sabrena, who met in the woods while deer hunting in 2003, look familiar, it’s because their 2008 wedding was featured on Country Music Television’s reality show My Big Redneck Wedding. Hosted by comedian Tom Arnold, the show documents unique weddings of country couples. Blair and Sabrena’s nuptials had a Wild West theme, with a few monster trucks thrown in for good measure.

“We were watching the show and I asked Blair if he would like to be on it, and he said, ‘our wedding is going to be better than that one’ (the one they were currently viewing),” Sabrena says. “So I e-mailed CMT.”

A few days later the network called back, saying the Millers’ wedding — complete with six-guns, groom and groomsmen in cowboy hats and boots; brides and bridesmaids in Southern belle dresses and a replica of the “Dukes of Hazard” General Lee as the wedding car — would be a perfect fit for the show.

The media attention didn’t end after the honeymoon, however. The Cornfield 500 and the Millers’ story were filmed as a pilot for a proposed series on cable’s SPEED network.