I have attached a close up showing the components in that area of the controller board.
I have no idea as to what has actually caused it, but I managed to blow the same capacitor, along with the three other smaller ones (see attachments below) when I connected two controllers in parallel, and the battery supply was definitely not reversed. Although the second controller blew, the original one was completely undamaged.
Incidentally, that capacitor is only rated for 25V max, so I'm guessing it's used either for smoothing the +5V supply, or perhaps for another low voltage supply (<20V) that's used for gate switching on the MOSFETs.
Regarding the "unimmed" reverse setting, do both of your wheel turn in the same direction, or are they on opposite sides of the vehicle?
Were the driving wheels on the ground or raised during testing?
Alan