Artha's father, Connor Penn, has successfully bred a gold dragon, a breed considered extinct and spoken of only in ancient legends. The gold dragon Beaucephalis must choose a rider, but Word Paynn sends his son's crew to attack Connor's home and steal the dragon.

The gold dragon chose Artha as its rider, but his friends are attacked by members the Dragon Eyes crew. Meanwhile, Artha is taken to an underground temple and given an ancient gauntlet that transforms him into the hero of legend, the Dragon Booster.

The dragon racer Pyrrah, normally one of the cleanest racers on the street, falls under the power of black mind-control gear developed by Word Paynn, and abducts Artha's younger brother in order to lure Artha into a trap.

A bank hiest implicates the Dragon Fist crew as responsible, and Moordryd challenges Phistus, the crew's leader, for control of the Down City Council, using a type of dragon developed by his father -- an invisible "wraith" dragon -- to defeat Phistus in the process.

Word Paynn challenges the Down City crews to recover an ancient artifact called the Furox, and Kitt Won, angry at not being thanked for helping Artha win a street race, is used to retrieve it.

Artha, exhausted from both street racing and his training as the Dragon Booster, accepts a sponsor to help him win an upcoming race, but the sponsor is actually Word Paynn, and the new gear he receives puts Beau firmly under Word Paynn's control.

Artha falls into a trap set by Word Paynn and finds himself deep below Dragon City where he meets the short, reclusive leader of the Dragon Keepers crew. But he is also near the lair of an energy-draining dragon called the Muhorta, which Word plans to use to capture the Dragon Booster and dragon of legend.

When Artha is simultaneously required to participate in a street race, speak to the Down City Council, and Dragon City Security, Lance and Parmon volunteer to help him out by posing as the Dragon Booster, while Kitt is abducted by Moordryd's crew as a trap for the Dragon Booster.

During a marathon race, Artha and his friends fall into a trap by Moordryd and land in the ancient Track of Doom, realm of the ancient, warlike Dragon Prophets; they must convince the dragons that they have the strength to prevent a new war between dragons and humans.

Moordryd challenges a prideful Dragon Booster for ownership of the legendary dragon Beau, secretly planning to use the Furox artifact to control Beau and deliver the dragon of legend to his father.

Artha misjudges Kawake, retired champion of the sport of drag-ball, after which Word Paynn tricks Kawake into mining for black draconium directly below the city's support columns.

Artha begins to doubt himself as a leader, even as Word Paynn is capturing dragons of every element to synthesize an artificial legendary dragon of his own.

Artha is given rare deflection gear to help him win an upcoming race, but Moordryd plans to steal it, Parmon swaps it out for homemade gear of his own, and Lance replaces it with an outright fake.