Car & Driver

Born on June 11, 1972 in Washington D.C., Dennis was the second son of Don and Betty Short.  Don, a firefighter, and Betty, a school bus driver, lived in Dale City, VA with their first son Danny.

Growing up, Dennis was always actively involved in sports.  Those sports included football, baseball, wrestling and bicycle motocross (BMX).  He started playing football and baseball at the age of five, and continued to play throughout his middle school years.  Dennis took up the sport of wrestling when he started middle school, and continued to wrestle until his junior year in high school.  After that he decided to stop the other sports he was playing and focus on the one sport he enjoyed the most, BMX racing.

Throughout high school, Dennis worked as a mechanic in a bicycle shop.  He spent most of his spare time racing bicycles, and tinkering around with cars.  Before graduating high school, Dennis had decided on a career path.  He decided to pursue a career as a firefighter, just as his father did.  It took two years after he graduated high school, but in 1992 the Alexandria Fire Dept, the same Department his father was working for, finally hired him.

Dennis has had an interest in cars as far back as he can remember.  “I picked it up from my dad,” he explains.  “He was a mechanic and drag racer, before becoming a fireman.  He was always working on his cars or trucks and I found it very interesting.”  Dennis’ first interest in Motorsports was drag racing.  In 1989 he purchased his first real hot rod, a 1968 Chevy Camaro.  “That car was very cool,” Dennis explains.  “A few years after I bought it I took it to a guy to do some chassis work.  I was having it built into a pro-street drag car.  To make a long story short, the guy was difficult to deal with and it stretched out over four years.  After four years I was out of money and lost interest in the car, so I decided to sell it.  I still regret that decision.” 

Dennis had never really given any thought to road racing until 1994.  While watching TV one night he caught a glimpse of a racecar that opened his eyes to a whole new world.  “I saw a Volvo commercial with a Volvo Station Wagon Racecar in it,” explains Dennis.  “I thought that was the coolest thing.  It was super low and looked awesome.  I did some research to find out more about it and found that it was raced in a road racing series called the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC).  I immediately fell in love with those cars.  They had huge 19” wheels and where extremely low.  I wanted a car like that.”

In 1995, inspired by the Volvo Station Wagon Racecar, Dennis decided to purchase an American car that he had heard good things about.  He purchased a 1995 Saturn SW2.  That same day he took his new car to a friend’s stereo shop and lowered the suspension and installed custom wheels and tires. 

After learning of the BTCC, Dennis’ interest quickly turned to road racing.  He started surfing the web for as much information that he could find on Touring Cars and how he might be able to get started in racing himself.