Dude just imagine podracers in first person! I hope you devs make a very nice cocpit view, though all your work is pure quality anyway. I suggest to maybe bring the race about sooner having a later version of pod racing that is still happening during the galactic civil war. This will ensure a couple things, first and foremost it will keep annoying force sensitive little boys outa the equation, also it will let the sport get a lil more...voilent I'm thinking...;)
Maybe some of the pods could have built in offensive gadgets, like the flamethrower in Sebulba's pod, only maybe more obvious. Just imagine pulling up alongside a rival and bashing him into a wall, or burning him up with a flamethrower.
Also on the team issue, I think instead of one team bieng tuskens, maybe the two teams could both represent a sponsored racing team. Like the empire could have a sponsored team (similar to how the US army sponors a dragracing team) and the rebels could have a shady 'front' company sponsor their own team. The first team to cross the finish line wins, and this can be done by making 2 flags at the finish line (u can't spawn at) and having them take a nano second to capture. So the first player to enter it's capture zone will take it for thier team. Each flag is on the line at a equal distance, and one flag belongs to the empire, the other the rebels. The teams flag represents all of their tickets. So if a rebel player is first to cross the finish line (meaning hes first to enter the flag cap zone) he takes the empire's flag, and the rebels win. Same thing for the empire.
Also, to make things cooler these pods should be pretty resielent, but if the player's pod is destroyed and the player dies he can't spawn on the race track anymore. The only open spawn flag is in 2 cantinas (a rebel one an a imperial one) that over look the race track. Theres no exit from the cantina so the players cant leave to fight each other, but the cantinas there in have neat cameras they can access to watch the race up close, and theres the band of course playing that funky star wars music...

Futurama: You Can't Prove it Won't Happen