It should work if you have the machining skills.   Need a metal skid on the bottom side as you probably already know.  I often thought of that for rat racing.

Dennis,
Do some searching on the "Hell Razor" design, I believe they used a wood pan design. There were several designs published around 1948 - 49. As I remember they used hard balsa and covered it with gaze bandage with a hard wood skid. The basswood should work, I would suggest covering it with epoxy and 1 oz/yd weight glass cloth. I think using the aluminum pads (ala stunt) is a great idea. I would think about using a full crutch with the maple running all the way back, then add the bottom pan part. Try to keep all the openings above the maple mount crutch. Sounds like a great project. 

Best,       DennisT