How much money do you have in the rack? If my eyes aren't fooling me, those struts appears to be solid aluminum. That alone will make them much easier to bend than if they were tubular. Basically, if you don't have a ton of money in it, I'd go ahead and try to bend it. You don't have much to lose. Worst case it breaks and you buy a new, better designed, rack that will fit without issue.

I wouldn't bother heating the aluminum. If it's heat treated aluminum, you'll ruin the heat treatment if you get it hot enough to make a difference. If it's not heat treated, it'll bend readily without heat. Most people caution about bending aluminum because frames are all heat treated to a T6 temper or higher. At that temper, aluminum won't bend far before it cracks. At T0, 6061 bends very easily.