Lerk racing mod idea

Had an idea for a mod to NS2: Lerk races! All players are lerks, all the time. Each round starts with players hanging from the ceiling in the start zone, with a countdown timer. They then race to the turnaround, as quickly as they can, avoiding obstacles and each other the best they can. Then they race back from whence they came. Players are awarded points based on their finishing position. As soon as the first player crosses the finish line, a finish timer begins, and players have 10 seconds or whatever to cross the finish line before the round ends. Any players that fail to cross the finish line before the timer expires gain no points. First person to X amount of points wins the map, with a lovely trophy/award presentation, and the next map comes on. Maybe the current leader is given a slightly different colored model, like the Tour de France leader wearing the yellow jersey.

All along the route , random bonus entities will appear that provide players with a special ability for a short period of time. Perhaps there's an entity that gives the player celerity for 10 seconds. These entities will randomly appear, floating in the open, for a set period of time, at basically any position in the course. The first player to fly through/touch the entity is given the reward. One entity could be the ability to spew a spore cloud behind them, basically blinding the other players a little bit. Another could be the umbra cloud, which slows down enemy fliers. Another might be the ability to use your spike needles to slow down opponents in front of you. Think Mario Kart, except with lerks and flying and stuff!

The maps are mostly serial in layout, one end is the start/finish, the other end has a turnaround. The advantage here, however, is that you no longer have to worry about the commander viewpoint, so truly 3D worlds can be crafted. Beautifully sculptured canyons, caves, spirals, tremendous plunges followed by hairpin turns... it could be really fun to play and explore. Multiple pathways through certain sections can be envisaged, with pros/cons to each.

So I'm throwing this idea out to the NS2 public domain. I'd love to try my hand at coding such a thing, and I think you could do all the coding first with an exceptionally trivial linear map, one large room, just a start point and a turnaround. But, sadly, I don't have the time nor the experience necessary to see such a thing to completion. But if anyone else has the skills and the desire to give it a shot, I'd love to see it come alive!