OXFORD – Tricks, big air and back flips galore will highlight the return of the FreestyleMX.com Tour to Oxford Plains Speedway on Wednesday, Aug. 24.

The annual showcase gets underway at 6:30 p.m.

Freestyle MX has become a centerpiece event at such nationally televised competitions as ESPN’s Summer X Games and NBC’s Gravity Games. Oxford has hosted many gold medalists and up-and-comers in the rising sport over the years.

Scheduled to appear Wednesday are several OPS veterans, including Dustin Miller, Jeremy Carter, Jeremy Lusk and John Distler. Expected to join them are Clifford Adoptante, Jim McNeil, Derek Garland, Mike Mason, Grant Teel and Brian Foster.

“It’s always fun to see freestyle motocross return,” OPS owner Bill Ryan said in a statement released by the track. “They’re great guys and they love interacting with our fans. It’s also amazing how we see different competitors every year, yet the quality and excitement of the stunts keeps going up. I think that speaks to how the sport continues to grow.”

One example of that growth is the back flip. In the first and second year at Oxford, one rider’s ability to accomplish that stunt was the dramatic, featured event. Now, almost every world-class rider is capable of doing a full revolution on his bike in mid-air, sometimes more than 80 feet above the ground.

Other stunts have riders connected to their soaring bike by only their fingertips or a loose grip of the handlebars. Names like Rock Solid, Superman and Kiss of Death hint at the danger and the skill needed to walk away unscathed.

Oxford is one of more than 70 stops on the freestyle circuit that commenced March 19 in Imperial Valley, Calif.

With the help of Weekly Racing Series driver Sumner Sessions and his earth-moving equipment, OPS provides the MX gang with a mountain of dirt as its temporary playing surface on the front stretch.

Other fan favorites at Freestyle MX include the step up, in which competitors attempt to vault themselves over an adjustable high bar, and the sick trick competition, where riders wow fans and their peers with their most creative stunt.