Rick Thunderbolt is a Minor League Racing Champion and one of the best racers on Earth.
Biography
Rick is chosen to accompany Don Wei as the Earth Team's original pilot. He is seriously injured in the team's first race, and is later told that he can never race again, a fact that he learns to slowly accept, since racing was "his whole life".
Cool and confident, he seems to appreciate Molly's enthusiasm, and affectionately calls her "Little Mouse." He seems to be the first to see her potential as a pilot, playfully asking Don Wei if he took her along as a backup pilot in the second episode. Eventually, Rick becomes Molly's personal coach and begins to discover that Molly is hiding a secret from the team. During the race against Spirit, he finally determines Molly's true identity but doesn't reveal it to anyone else.
Rick also investigates the suspicious circumstances behind his crash to find out who sabotaged his ship. The search leads him first to a Scrub named Zard, who leads Rick to the real saboteur; a mad Scrub that takes orders from a mysterious being called "The Timeless One". Before Rick can learn anything else from him, the Scrub is killed when his house is struck by lightning.
The only clue Rick is left with is a stone pendant with a strange symbol on it. After asking the locals and other pilots about it unsuccessfully, he goes to a Scrub shaman for answers. The shaman senses a great evil near the stone, but Rick is willing to risk the danger to find the truth, especially since Molly might be the next target. With the shaman's help, Rick has a vision in which he meets Canaletto face to face. Canaletto shows and tells Rick many things, but makes him forget the whole experience afterward.
When the team qualifies for the Grand Finals on Ōban, Rick decides to return Earth, but only after he encourages Molly to tell Don she's his daughter and try to work things out.