Do some slow driving around with the cover off and listen for the mesh. Shouldn't be too noisy or chunky sounding. Do a quick throttle blip. If it sounds good, do another. Inspect the mesh by rocking the spur gear teeth against the pinion teeth. With a 48p gearset, if I just barely feel any slop...
So it ran fine, then next time out the spur gear was destroyed? Did you happen to look at the spur between runs? Any changes from one run to the next? Have you checked your motor temps after running? The only thing I can think of that may have caused the mesh to change is if your motor was...