Need Advice

Going to Sebring this weekend to shoot an SCCA event. I'm going to work on my panning skills, mainly but not exclusively.
I'll be using my Canon 400D with 70-200mm F4L lense and I have a monopod.

1. Do you all recommend using the monopod for panning shots or not?

2. Is it more effective to manual focus on a point on the track, then pan to that
point and fire or just do straight panning with AF and burst shoot?

3. Would you shoot in RAW of JPEG?

Thanks for any and all responses.

1. nope

2. use AI Servo, burst if you like

3. RAW if you like. I personally don't but countless others do

1 - never do with my sig 70-200
2 - AI servo, dont burst usually but have multi-shot on for sequences etc
3 - JPEG personally

edit - hi dave

1. nope
2. AI Servio (lower center focus point), Burst if you feel the need. Only good for "wrecks" IMO
3. JPG unless you just have a ton of memory.

I'll just throw in that you need to track the car for a second or 2 before you press the shutter release. AF isn't a magic bullet and it needs a bit of help to work correctly.

OK, thanks for the replies guys. I'll use the monopod for general shooting only then.
AI servo it is and I'll probably shoot JPEG.
I'll also watch my background, keep my feet firmly planted, swivel from the hips and follow through. I plan to use shutter speeds from 1/80 to 1/320 sec and any other suggestions you may have are welcome.

1. No, I handhold up to a 500 f4.
2. Both have their merits, I do both, as I had a camera with dodgy autofocus most.
3. I'd stick with JPEG unless you want to do some major tweaking.

1. Depends on the lens. I use a monopod with long teles, handhold 200mm and shorter.
2. I started shooting motorsports with manual exposure, manual focus cameras. I would predermine exposure and prefocus at a particular point on the track. Still feel more comfortable doing it that way.
3. JPEG