American Steve Rapp, who is competing for Attack Performance Racing as a wild card entry in this weekend’s Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, missed the second MotoGP practice session Friday due to an engine problem. Rather than install an inferior back-up engine, the team decided to instead use the time to repair their primary engine and be prepared to resume practice Saturday morning. “The engine started locking up on Steve at the end of the first practice,” said Attack Performance Racing Team Owner/Crew Chief Richard Stanboli. “We had a problem with a [rod] bearing, which is really weird because over the last two seasons I’ve never had a problem with a Kawasaki bearing.” Stanboli said the special crankshaft in his 220-plus-horsepower World Superbike-spec ZX-10R engine was damaged beyond repair, but he was able to save the titanium connecting rod and will be able to rebuild the engine using another, slightly heavier crankshaft. The team chose to go this route because the team only has one racebike and their back-up engine is an AMA Pro Superbike-spec engine that makes approximately 22 horsepower less. “Steve felt this was the best way to go,” said Stanboli, “and luckily he’s really happy with how the chassis and everything else is working. Who knows? Maybe the heavier crank will help us get out of some of the slower corners where we were cutting the power.”